California Bound
by vintageambition
Summary: The gang is heading to California on a road trip! But will Lucas be able to hold in his feelings for Maya the whole time? Or will the events of the trip make it too hard to hold back? LUCAYA. With Riarkle.
1. Farkle's Problem

**A/N: NEW STORY! And I'm super excited about it. If you guys read my last story "Sometimes Love Is Hard" then you heard me talk about this story often. Well here it is finally up! I hope you guys love clichés because this story is filled with them! Enjoy!**

 **This first chapter is kind of exposition so nothing really picks up until the next chapter… just fyi.**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 1: "Farkle's Problem"

9 days. Just 9 days and I would be starting classes at NYU. College was actually that close. It seemed unreal.

I sat at Topanga's, my legs propped up on the coffee table in front of the couch. Zay sat next to me, tapping away on his phone. Farkle walked around the back of the couch. He carefully balanced 3 coffees in his hands, passing them out to Zay and me before taking a seat in the chair.

"I cannot believe college starts in less than 2 weeks!" Farkle said, almost as if he was reading my mind. Zay and I shot an unbelieving look at each other.

"Don't remind me," Zay whined. He was a little more than nervous about starting classes. He wasn't going far but he was moving upstate for school. He didn't know how he felt about being alone. Of course we all tried to convince him that he would make friends and do great in school. Riley pointed out that he would have his roommate. But Zay never ended questioning what would happen if he and his roommate didn't get along. If was safe to say, he was losing it with his nerves.

"Oh come on Zay! You have to be at least a little excited," I tried. Zay nudged his head. I could tell he would be much more excited if he wasn't leaving for school.

But it's not like he was the only one leaving. "I, for one, am tremendously excited to start college," Farkle put into the conversation. "This is exactly what we have been working towards our entire school career so far."

Farkle was leaving to go to Harvard. Not that that surprised anybody. His parents were more proud than anyone. He showed no fear in leaving all his friends and family to go to school a couple states away. I could never figure out if he was actually not nervous at all or if he was just really good at hiding his fear. Actually pretty much everyone in our group was moving away for school. Just Maya and I were staying behind to go to school in the city. Riley had left just the day before to go to UCLA in California. Anyone who knows Riley, knows that she was not head over heels about moving across the country from everything she knew back in her home state. It took weeks for her parents to convince her to take the scholarship she received and take the jump to move. Maya sat with her for hours trying to convince her.

"You're not the least bit nervous?" Zay interrupted my thoughts. Farkle shrugged his shoulders indifferently.

"I guess there's just other things on my mind," he answered. My brows furrowed, curious. I could tell there was something weighing on Farkle for the past couple of weeks. Zay had noticed too, as did Maya. But we never asked him. I just thought it was nerves about school or something. At least that's why I never asked him. But if it wasn't school, then what was it?

"What are you talking about?" I wondered. He shook his head, sipping his coffee, refusing to answer. "Farkle come on! We're your friends!"

"It doesn't even matter anymore." Zay and I shared a worried look. We had never seen Farkle like this. He seemed genuinely upset or sad, not just worried like I had originally thought.

"Farkle stop being vague. What's going on with you?" Zay pleaded. Farkle's gaze stayed down on his coffee in his hands. I could see his eyes follow the liquid as he swirled it around in its cup. I had seen this look before. He looked distraught and confused and a mixture of just about one million other emotions. I couldn't exactly place where or when I had seen him before wear this same look.

"It's Riley…" he answer in a quiet voice.

Oh. That's right. I had seen him wear that look a dozen times before. I had never before mentioned it, the fact that I knew he had obvious feelings for Riley. That look found its way onto his face when she and I dated back freshman year. Then more when Riley started dating other guys throughout high school. As far as I know, Farkle had never made Riley aware of his feelings.

"I can't help but feel like I messed up. I know you guys don't have any idea what I'm talking about but I-" he continued. More than willing to let him go on, I remained silent. But Zay burst out laughing.

"Farks I don't know how discreet you think you've been over the years but I doubt it's as much as you think it is," he spoke through burst of laughs.

Farkle look confused. I had to give a sympathetic smile in his direction, shrugging my shoulders.

"Yeah sorry Farkle. But it's pretty obvious how you feel about Riley." It must have taken Farkle by surprise because he nearly dropped his coffee. "We've known for years."

"Does Riley know?" he asked quickly. I could see thoughts running through his head, must of them riddled with worry.

Both me and Zay shook our heads. I was almost positive Riley didn't have any idea Farkle felt this way about her. Riley was naïve, in a good way sometimes, but she never did catch onto Farkle's feelings. Sometimes I would ask Maya about it, but she just laughed and said the ball would probably always be in Farkle's court. She did have her suspicions that Riley liked Farkle as well as he liked her. Hell, we all had those suspicions, but the two of them had never discussed it.

"Why are you beating yourself up about it?" I asked. Sure he had had these feelings for years, probably before any of us, including him even knew. But I had never seen him this upset about it.

"She's gone. I've had years to tell her. How hard can it be to just say the words? And I didn't do it. And now she's gone! I lost my chance…that could've been it. The real thing… and I screwed it up by not taking my chance," he said.

The sorrow in his eyes was blinding. I could understand what he was saying. It must be horrible seeing your chance to be with the girl you love fly by. Riley was all the way in California.

"Then don't miss your chance," Zay suddenly said into the silence that filled our circle. Both Farkle's and mine eyes went to Zay, eyebrows arched.

"Zay she's in California. I think my chance has passed," Farkle insisted. He set his half empty coffee cup on the table and leaned back into his chair to mourn. Zay was my best friend, but even I didn't know where he was going with this.

"They can't exactly be together. Hundreds of miles of separation don't usually do well for a relationship," I smirked.

"Doesn't mean he can't be honest with her," he insisted, now leaning forward in his spot, looking right at Farkle. I made a point to say that this isn't the type of thing you typically want to tell a girl over the phone. I let out a small chuckle, but Zay was standing firm on this topic. "Then go to her!" This really got Farkle's attention. "You have a couple weeks until school right?" Farkle nodded. He looked open to the suggestion our friend was giving, but skeptical. After all, this was a complete trip across the country he was talking about.

"Maybe it's not the worst idea Farkle," I suggested. It took a moment for me to swallow Zay's suggestion. "It's better than worrying about it for god-knows how long." Silence remained, Farkle thinking it all over.

As his friend, I didn't like seeing him like this. He was worried and feeling the world crash on top of him. What if Riley met someone else in California? Then he really would have missed his chance. That was something he would always regret. So why not tell her now. So they can't be together at the moment, it doesn't mean that she doesn't have the right to know. Even if she doesn't feel the same way, those two were best friends, they would get past it without a scratch.

"I can't you guys."

"Give us one good reason!" Zay said, not taking no for an answer.

Farkle shrugged before answered. "What if she doesn't feel the same way? Then it's a huge waste of time and I'll confuse her. And not to mention I'll be heartbroken!" All valid points.

"Look Farkle if you feel about her the way I think you feel about her, then it would never be a waste of time telling her that. And maybe she will feel the same," Zay convinced.

"The point is you won't know until you try," I continued for him. "Maybe now is your real chance. And you have an opportunity to not miss it."

It felt like a long time of sitting in silence. Farkle buried his head in his hands, probably making mental lists and pros and cons charts. Zay and I occasionally shifted our glances back and forth to each other and then back to Farkle. We knew he was frustrated and confused on what to do, but if there was anything I really knew, it was that even if Riley didn't feel the same way, their relationship would not suffer. Not a bit.

Finally Farkle looked up. "Ok I'll do it," he announced with a smile. "But it has to be perfect," he continued. He paused, giving me and Zay a moment to prepare ourselves for his suggestion. "Road trip." I heard Zay next to me nearly cough on air from surprise.

"Why the hell can't you just fly there?" he asked.

"No! I know Riley and she will think this is way more romantic!" Farkle explained with a smile. That was true. It was a total rom-com move and Riley would love it. "Also I have a bit of a favor to ask. Will you guys come with me?" That was a surprise…

"Why would you want us to come?"

"Not so much 'want' as much as I 'need' you guys to come," he said, before noticing that our expressions just got more confused. Suddenly Farkle was trying to make his romantic road trip into a boy's trip? "I need you guys there as moral support! I know if I have no one there to talk to me, there will be nothing to stop me from over-thinking and turning the car back around."

If there was one thing Farkle was good at, it was over-thinking. Now was our turn to be in deep thought while Farkle waited for an answer. We did have time before school started. And honestly after the fuss we just pulled trying to convince Farkle telling Riley was the right thing to do, how could we say no to his simple request. All he wanted was for his best friends to keep him company and tell him things were going to be okay, just tell him turning the car around without seeing Riley was a bad idea. It seemed simple enough. Plus, hey, it was a trip to California before school started. It would be fun. Without waiting for Zay, I turned to Farkle.

"Count me in Farks." Both of us turned to Zay. Pressure was on him, the one who spear-headed the 'send Farkle to tell Riley' campaign. His face was blank and I honestly thought for a minute he would say no. But a smile soon grew in its place.

"How could I say no? I'm in!"

And just like that, Farkle's romantic cross-country road trip became a boy's trip. Farkle went straight to work, pulling out his phone and looking up maps and different routes to take. He had to plan it perfectly to make sure we were back in time for school. He kept thanking me and Zay. I couldn't help but think about how perfect this could all turn out. Riley wanted a prince, always did. It was part of the reason we broke up, I couldn't be what she needed. But Farkle: Farkle might just be exactly what she needs.

 **A/N: Like I said, slow exposition first chapter. But next chapter is completely Lucaya so look out for that! I went a little wild with the rom-com inspired cliché moments in this fic so be aware of that lol**

 **Make sure to review you guys! I love reading reviews! Gets me so pumped to write and post:) love you guys!**


	2. Window

**A/N: Lucaya chapter! Enjoy:)**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 2: "Window"

After some pretty serious pleading from Farkle, he finally convinced Zay and me to go on the road trip with him to see Riley. After all, it was our idea that Farkle tell Riley how he felt. And it was us who convinced him it was better to do it sooner rather than later. It seemed only right that we at least go with him and prevent any last minute chickening out.

It had only been a couple of days since our talk at Topanga's. Farkle insisted he had the whole trip planned out and it wouldn't take too long to get there and back. But we had to leave soon, as in tomorrow. We would be cutting it a little close, getting back just a day before I started classes at NYU. Zay didn't start school until a couple days after me but he had to leave the day after we got back from our trip to get to school in time for his dorm move-in date. And Farkle would leave just the day after that. It was a tight schedule, but we would try for Farkle.

I was in the middle of folding a red baseball tee and tucking it into the corner of my suitcase when I heard a light tap on my window. I turned to see a familiar face on the other side. Maya. This wasn't the first time she had shown up at my window. It happened a lot actually, it was nothing new. Knowing she would be invited in, she started pushing up the window. I walked over to help her over the sill and into my room when I noticed her face. Her eyes were bloodshot and stained with tears.

This wasn't the first time she had shown up at my window crying either.

"Maya what's wrong?" I asked concerned. I led her over to the bed and sat her down, taking a seat next to her. I reached over to my nightstand and grabbed a box of tissues, handing her one. She took it with sobs still forcing their way out of her. "Maya what's wrong?" I repeated.

"It's Josh," she answered, blowing her nose into the tissue. I wasn't even surprised by the answer. Maya and Josh had been dating for almost 3 years now and to be honest, I never liked the guy. It made it pretty hard to like the guy when every time Maya crawled through my window upset or crying it was always because of him. Ok, ok maybe 'always' is an exaggeration. But 9 out of 10 times it was because of Josh and that wasn't alright with me.

"What happened?"

"He dumped me," she revealed after taking a deep breathe, trying to alleviate herself from some of dreadful sobs coming out of her.

I froze. Maya and Josh fought all the time. More than a couple should fight. But I never thought they would actually break up. Especially not if it was Josh breaking up with Maya. She was never anything but loving towards Josh. He was always the one to fuck up and upset her. I mean Maya isn't perfect and sometimes, I'll admit, she isn't a joy to be around. But she was one of the most amazing people I knew and Josh didn't deserve her one bit. He never did in my opinion.

"Maya why would he break up with you?" I asked. I was genuinely curious. Was Maya too attentive? Too loving? Too caring? Maya's face turned away from me, stricken with something that looked too much like shame.

"I don't want to talk about," she cried. My hand made its way to her back and started rubbing soft circles into it.

"Maya come on what happened?"

"Lucas please? I don't want to tell you what happened. At least not right now… it's embarrassing," her voice spoke low. Whatever happened, it was bad. Josh had done something that made Maya feel embarrassed. She didn't want to tell me what happened. She always told me!

Josh always pissed her off. In the beginning of their relationship, whenever they would fight it was usually something small. Maya would go to Riley as one would expect. But as time went on, she started coming to me. I would sit with her, listen, comfort her; whatever she needed really. And before long, she was always crawling through my window, crying about something Josh did or said. I asked her once why she didn't go to Riley, not that I minded that she came to me. But she answered that she didn't want Riley to think badly of her uncle. Personally, I grew to hate him more and more. It was always something he did. And maybe I'm biased because Maya is my best friend, but it's just a fact. I never said anything about it though, and I definitely didn't say it now.

I didn't say anything actually. The last thing I wanted was for Maya to feel judged. This was our no judgment zone. It was a place both of us could say anything we needed to say without judgment or criticism. I didn't want to ruin that. So I didn't say anything. I didn't think there was anything I could really say to make her feel better in this moment. This moment where her pretty blue eyes were red-rimmed and flowing like a waterfall, and her cheeks were swollen and stained with the tears that fell from her eyes.

I wrapped my arms around her and leaned my back against the headboard of my bed. Her head dug into my chest, grasping onto my shirt. On the outside, I was calm and quiet. I knew that's what she needed right now. But inside I was losing it. I was working overtime to push down the anger that was bubbling up in my chest. The anger at Josh for being such an asshole. The only thing I wanted to do was find Josh and kill him. But what stopped me was Maya. She didn't need that right now, Texas Lucas coming out. She needed me here, with her.

So we stayed like that for a while, until Maya's sobs were gone and were replaced by a few light hiccups.

"Were you packing?" Maya's voice broke through the silence of the room. I was confused for a second, taking a moment to take my full attention away from Maya and remember that I was in the middle of packing for my trip in the morning when that small blonde knocked on my window.

"Oh yeah. For the road trip with the boys," I answered. Maya slowly made her way out of my arms and sat up, pushing her tangled hair out of her face. I watched as her fingers began to carefully trace the wavy lines of my comforter.

"Zay told me! You guys are going to go see Riley huh?" she asked. I nodded, my hand instinctively going to her back again to stroke it lightly. She told me once that it calmed her down, soothed her. It became a habit for me to do whenever she was upset.

"Yeah Farkle is finally going to tell Riley how he feels about her," I chuckled.

"About time." I watched as Maya's face shrunk.

"You miss Riley huh?" I asked, although I already knew the answer. Maya scoffed, knowing I knew the answer.

"Yep," she drew out the word.

In the silence, she reached over to the pile of clothes that sat on the edge of my bed that I was to fold and pack for the trip. A little grin grew on my face as an idea formed inside my head.

"Why don't you come with us?" I beamed. Maya gave me a smirk, accompanied by an eyebrow raise as she continued to fold shirts and pack them in my suitcase.

"I wouldn't want to intrude on your boy time," she laughed. I sprang up from my previous half-lying position to look her in her eye.

"You would not be intruding! I just think it would be good for you to get out of the city. All your friends are going to be on this trip. It'll be good for you," I tried convincing her. She needed to get out. She couldn't stay holed up in her room while we were all away on this road trip. Whose window would she crawl into when she needed to talk? Maya didn't seem convinced quite yet, so I kept going. "Maybe it'll take your mind off Josh."

I felt a little selfish. I couldn't help but feel like I would rather her not be in the city. If she was in the city, what if her and Josh met up and got back together. It was not good for Maya to be in a relationship with a guy she was always fighting with. No one really knew how much they fought, since it was usually over in about a day or two. But considering I was the one Maya cried to every time he decided to be an asshole or a douchebag or just plain rude and inconsiderate, I knew just how often their fights came. It was alarmingly often for anyone who's wondering.

"I don't know," Maya said.

"Don't you want to see Riley?" I pulled out the big guns. Maya knew it too. She looked up at me, smirking.

"You had to pull the Riley card didn't you?" she laughed. I rarely ever pulled that card, only when necessary, but now seemed like the time. But I did like seeing that smile back on her face. She quickly rolled her eyes upon seeing my smirk, knowing I was in the prime of my victory.

"Come on Maya. Me, Farkle, and Zay are your friends. We want you there. We don't want you to be sad," I acknowledged. Honestly, I don't think I would forgive myself if I let Maya stay at home, no friends in sight, and heard-broken while we all just drove off to see her best friend who I knew she was missing like crazy even if it had only been a few days since Riley left.

"Fine! I'll go Huckleberry!" she gave in. I couldn't stop the smile from working its way onto my face. I pulled Maya into me for a tight hug and pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head. "This better be fun!"

Anything I could do on this trip to cheer Maya up, I would do. She was my best friend, I would do anything to cheer her up. She threw the t-shirt she was in the middle of folding back on top of the clothing pile and rolled off the bed.

"I have to go home and pack now," she said. She was trying to act like it was so inconvenient to be invited so last minute, but I knew she was a last minute packer anyway.

I walked over to the window to help her out. She made me nervous when she climbed out. She always tried to roll out fast because it was 'cooler' as she said. One time she accidentally tripped climbing out and hit her head on the fire escape railing. I had to take her to the hospital, but thankfully there was no trauma or concussion, but a bad headache and one hell of a bruise. I was a worried mess even though Maya started having a laughing fit the second she got her bill of clean health. Ever since then I have been more than anxious every time she crawls out of my window.

Once her feet hit the fire escape outside, I lean against the window sill, telling her I'll make sure Farkle and Zay know she's joining us on our journey.

"Meet tomorrow morning at 10 at Farkle's place. Don't be late! Farkle's nervous enough about having to tell Riley. He'll have a full on melt down if his very thought out schedule is off," I explained. Farkle made the schedule with care to ensure that we got back in time for school to start. But I think he's stressing over the schedule so much so that he has something besides Riley to think about.

Maya just nods and waves goodbye, thanking me for always keeping the window unlocked. As soon I see her figure disappear around the corner I close my window and walk back over to my bed. I look down at the many shirts she folded and placed nicely inside my suitcase. It causes me to smile, although I'm not too sure why.

I feel a bit bad. I know my focus on this trip should be Farkle and his nervous confession to Riley. But all I can think about is making sure Maya isn't sad or obsessing over her now ex-boyfriend who always treated her like a doormat.

This should be an interesting trip…

 **A/N: I wanted Maya and Lucas to have a really close friendship relationship in this. I HATE to make Josh the bad guy because I think in the show he would be a nice, good boyfriend to any girl, but for the sake of my story…I needed him to be a jerk lol**

 **Hope you guys are enjoying! Thanks for the nice reviews and also nice to see some familiar usernames from my older stories reading this one! You guys are the best:)**

 **More reviews means quicker update!**


	3. The Start

**A/N: Ok so this is honestly a little bit of a filler chapter… but it's fun and kind of sets up some stuff for later. So enjoy!**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 3: "The Start"

Of course it took me forever to pack. Maya FaceTimed me when she got home and insisted on asking my opinion on every single piece of clothing she packed. Before either of us knew, it was already almost 3 in the morning. Knowing we had to meet at Farkle's early in the morning, I reluctantly hung up the phone. For the most part, Maya seemed distracted from her break-up with Josh. Of course, she brought it up during our FaceTime. I tried my best to keep the vain in my forehead from becoming too evident. Hearing her be sad over that guy never got easier. But then she would smile or laugh and I would feel an instant relief to my anger.

In the morning, I cut it pretty close to the 10AM call time Farkle had set. My late night conversation with Maya made me forget to set my alarm for the morning and I woke up late. With just a couple minutes to spare, I walked up the block to Farkle's building. From down the street, I could see Zay and Maya stand on the curb talking. Maya had a coffee in her hand and was swirling the cup around, taking small sips every now and then. Farkle suddenly emerged from the front door of the classy apartment building. He was the first one to look in my direction and see me.

"There you are!" he exclaimed relieved. Zay and Maya turned to look at me lugging my bags the last few feet until I was in front of them.

"We didn't know if you were going to show up," Maya joked. She reached over and grabbed another cup of coffee that was sitting of the roof of the car parked next to the curb and handed it to me. "I brought coffee for everyone. As a little thank you for letting me crash your boys trip." I had told her a thousand times she wasn't 'crashing' anything. We all loved having her around, she was our best friend, how could we not? From the looks both Farkle and Zay gave her, I could tell they had told her the same. "It might be a little cold now, considering you're late," she smirked.

"Alright we got to get going! My dad is letting us use one of his cars for the trip. Lucas put your bag in the trunk and let's go!" Farkle announced. I did as I was told and put my bag in the trunk next to the others. Farkle was about to put the key in the ignition when he looked startled. "Damn it! Hold on guys I have to go get the insurance papers from my dad," he said, starting up the stairs of the building.

Maya held out her hand to motion to him. "Wait! If you're going inside can I use the bathroom really quick? That coffee went right through me." She received a nod from the genius boy and went up the stairs with him. At his heels, she disappeared into the building with him. I got out from my seat in the back of the car and stood on the sidewalk. Knowing I would be in that car for the next few hours, I wanted to stretch my legs as much as I could. Zay apparently felt the same. He got out from his spot in the passenger seat and stood next to me. He had a particularly worrying smirk on his face.

"What?" I asked, worried for the answer.

"You invited Maya?" he answered, the same smirk remaining present on his face.

"You don't care do you?"

"No of course not! I love the little blonde beauty but it's just interesting." I knew where he was going with this. I had heard it all before from him. A million times to be specific. I ran my hand threw my hair, hoping he would understand my frustration.

"Zay, Maya is like my best friend. She was upset and I didn't want her to be alone while we were all gone. That's it," I explained. Maya and I had grown so close in the last couple of years.

"Lucas we're on this trip so Farkle can tell Riley how he feels about her. You're not going to tell Maya how you feel about her?" he asked.

"I got over Maya a long time ago. You know that," I tried.

It was lie, of course. I know that. Every time I truly thought I had gotten over any feelings I had for Maya in middle school or our freshman year, I would be proved wrong. I would be proved wrong by the intense feeling I got in my stomach whenever she smiled. Or how I would drop just about anything in the world to listen to her talk. We could talk about anything, that's just how close we had gotten. And we did talk about everything. Everything except how much I wanted it to be me that got to be with her.

Zay gave me a disbelieving look. I couldn't hide much from him. We've known each other since we were kids, but I didn't want him knowing about this. I had convinced him long ago that I was over Maya. While I was dating Riley freshman year I convinced him. But after the break-up, when Maya and I got closer, it got harder to hide it.

"You expect me to believe that?" he asked.

"Believe whatever you want, but I invited Maya on this trip to be a good friend. Because that is all we are is friends." Zay was about to speak when the door of the building was swung open and our two friends appeared, running towards the car.

"Alright we are officially 5 minutes off schedule! Let's go people!" said Farkle as he jumped into the driver's seat. The rest of us piled into our seats, Zay in the front and Maya in the back with me.

We were able to make up the tragic 5 minute schedule loss after a couple of sketchy drives down some ally-ways. But we soon made it to the freeway and were off towards our first rest stop. Only 3 hours separated us from being able to get out of the car for a little while.

Zay called dibs on having music played from his phone. It was mostly indie stuff with some rap songs thrown in. He had taken the courtesy of making a playlist for the road trip. At Farkle's request, and Maya's immediate thankfulness, he omitted from putting any country songs on the playlist. I mostly talked with Maya while Farkle focused on the road, muttering things to himself. He was concentrating on what he would say to Riley once he saw her. Zay sat in the front of the car, looking out the window, singing along to all the songs quietly.

I noticed Maya look down at her phone occasionally, typing messages. I would bet all the money I had that she was texting Josh. It wasn't a good conversation. Like I predicted before the trip even started, my first priority became Maya. Leaning down, I reached into her bag and pulled out Maya's white polaroid camera and started snapping pictures of everything, listening to her laugh at all the pictures.

For what turned out to be almost 4 hours until we got to our first rest stop, I ignored the looks Zay was giving me from the front seat. It was hard to pretend I didn't notice them. They were pretty obvious. Thankfully, Maya didn't notice.

God I couldn't deal with him giving me side glances like he knew what was going on in my head. Not if he was going to be giving them to me the entire trip. My attention would be on Maya because she needed me right now, but I just hope Zay wouldn't make me regret that.

 **A/N: Like I said, filler chapter. But the next chapter has some major cliché rom-com moments so get excited for that! Lol**

 **Thank you guys so much for reading! Please don't forget to review! Love you:)**


	4. Tiny Problem

**A/N: a little late on the update but better late than never! Enjoy this chapter you guys!**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 4: "Tiny Problem"

The car ride felt never-ending. Soon night had fallen and the roads were pretty empty. Zay was almost asleep in the front seat, just like I was in the back. Next to me, Maya sat with eyes glued to her phone. I watched her face as the bright screen illuminated it. Most of the time, her expression was blank and I could tell she was on her social media. Other times she would wear a smile, letting out a lighthearted giggle, telling me she was probably on her Tumblr. But other times, times when my heart would sink a little for multiple reasons, her face would drop. I could see the little wrinkles in her forehead appear and her eyes fight back glassy tears. Her little fingers would type out a quick message, then return to one of her other expressions, indicating she was on her social media again.

I didn't know if I should say anything. I pretended to be asleep or paying attention to the road, but all of my attention was on her. Finally the small blonde seemed to have enough. She bent over and angrily shoved her phone in her bag on the floor. Her back leaned back against the seat with a thud that caused even Farkle and a half-asleep Zay in the front seat to look back curious. But they turned their attention away quick, probably chalking her reaction up to tiredness from the road trip. But I knew better. I had been watching her the past few hours getting more and more upset from her interaction over her phone, with Josh no doubt.

"You ok?" I asked in a quiet voice, hoping the boys wouldn't hear me in their front seats. Maya's head had previously been hiding in her hands as she remained still. Once my words came out, she looked up, managing to wear a smile as if nothing was wrong.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Yeah I'm just tired." She wasn't believable. Maya Hart was not ok; that was for sure. But I respected that she didn't want to talk about it, at least not now with Zay and Farkle with us in the car. So I just nodded and went back to pretending to stare out the window.

How could she want to be with a guy like Josh? I thought this often, to be honest. But seeing how upset she was over this break-up just made me plain confused. Even after the break-up, Josh was currently doing something to hurt her. God I couldn't help but think of how lucky Josh was that I wasn't in the city with him. Not much could stop my blood from boiling over with rage. I'm the one who always talks to Maya, makes her feel better, holds her when she needs me to. I'm the one that loves her like she should be loved, but for some insane reason, he's the one who actually gets to be with her. Well, not anymore I guess…

Soon, I noticed the car slow down. I actually paid attention to what was out the window and noticed we were pulling into a hotel parking lot. Without much warning, the car stopped completely and shut off. It was funny how on long car rides, all you want to do is get out of the car and into a bed. But when the car actually stops, you just want to stay put for a little longer.

"You guys get all the bags and meet me in the lobby. I'll go check in," Farkle said, getting immediately out of the car. I guess that feeling didn't apply to the person who was driving; they would always just want to get out of the car. It took the rest of us a couple minutes to gather the strength and get out, stretching our legs. Zay walked ahead, eager to get into bed. I stayed back with Maya, grabbing the handle to her suitcase.

"I can carry it Lucas," she insisted with a small voice. I shook my head simply.

"It's fine." I walked towards the hotel lobby before she could say anything. When she caught up to my side, I looked at her. "Are you sure you're ok?" Honestly, I expected her to talk to me now. We were alone, unlike how we had been for the past day. I knew something was wrong. She was upset and I thought more than anything she would talk to me about it. But instead she nodded.

"I'm fine Huckleberry." The arch in my eyebrow gave away the fact that I didn't believe her for a second. But we arrived at the door of the hotel lobby too soon to do anything about it.

We walked up to the desk where Farkle and Zay were standing. A long, worried face was being worn by both of them, although I couldn't help but think Zay also looked just a little bit amused.

"So we have a tiny problem," Farkle announced once we met them at the desk.

"What?" Maya asked for both of us.

"Oh you'll see," Zay answered, making his way to the elevator. We all followed behind him. I didn't say much, mostly due to being so tired and ready to pass out in a bed. Maya, however, was full of questions about what the so-called 'tiny problem' was. I don't think I had ever tuned her voice out before, but I did now.

It wasn't until Farkle slipped the room key into the door and we all walked in that I started to be concerned with the 'tiny problem.' The problem being the room only had two beds: a queen sized and a small twin size bed next to it.

"Surprise!" Zay yelled. I wasn't amused. Both me and Maya turned our heads to Farkle to find answers.

"Sorry!" he begged. His face was already red with embarrassment as he tried to explain. "I booked the room before Maya was coming with us. This was the only room they had left but it was fine when it was the 3 of us! And I asked downstairs but they're all booked up. They don't have any larger rooms available," he explained. This wasn't a choice situation, but it was understandable. Inviting Maya was last minute; the whole trip was last minute sure, but inviting Maya was like hours before the start of the trip. Farkle had so many other things on his mind I couldn't even blame him for forgetting about the room situation. "I promise I'll call the other hotels and make sure it fits 4 people."

"It's ok Farks. But what do we do about tonight?" Maya wondered. Although I knew she was upset, her excuse about being tired wasn't a lie. She had yawned a few times since walking into the hotel and her eyelashes fluttered over her eyes, begging to shut.

"Look Maya you take the little bed," I said. I quickly eyed a little couch on the side of the room. It looked more like a loveseat in all honesty, not much room, but it would do. "I'll sleep on the couch," I volunteered, pointing out the couch.

"Lucas you don't have to do that!" Maya tried. Ignoring her, I moved over to the couch, setting my bag down next to it. I turned to see Zay already curled up on one side of the big bed.

"You think he's going to move?" I asked, laughing.

"Farkle got this room because I'm not even supposed to be here! Ok I will sleep on the couch it's not a big deal."

I wasn't having it. There was no way Maya was going to be uncomfortable on that couch all night while I relaxed in a cozy bed. Even though Maya was much smaller than me and would have more leg room on the couch. No! I pushed that thought out of my mind and let out a little laugh.

"Maya I'm sleeping on this couch alright? End of story. Even if you were to somehow get to this couch, I still wouldn't sleep in the bed. So please just take the bed?" I begged. I put on my most charming 'Huckleberry' smile. I could see a smile appear on her face as she gave in.

"Fine Sundance you win," she smiled. I took just a minute to admire it, her smile. The admiration was cut short when I noticed Zay smirking at us from the bed. My eye contact dropped from hers. "Thanks." Maya threw in before disappearing in the bathroom.

I sat on the couch to take off my shoes. At least the couch was pretty comfy. I grabbed an extra couple pillows from the cabinet by the TV, but was met face to face with Zay as soon as we both heard the shower start in the bathroom.

"Really? You gave her the bed?"

"It's called being a gentleman Zay," I huffed, setting up the pillows and blankets on the couch. I glanced over at Farkle. He was breathing steadily on the bed, assumingly asleep. I was afraid if he had an idea of my feelings for Maya, he would feel conflicted about telling Riley. Why would he listen to me about telling his best friend he has feelings for her, if I can't even tell my best friend I have feelings for her?

"Lucas why can't you just tell Maya how you feel?" Zay pleaded.

In my head, there were so many reasons why I couldn't tell her. But right now I just didn't want to overwhelm her. She had so many emotions about Josh and their whole situation, whatever that situation was. It all felt so unresolved with Josh that adding more feelings on top of it would just confuse her. She didn't deserve that. She deserved to be happy. Even though I knew I could make her happy, much happier than Josh, I couldn't help but think now wasn't the time. It wouldn't be fair to her. And I didn't want to be selfish, not with her.

So I lied. "Because I don't feel the way you think I feel about her Zay. Not anymore. So there is nothing to tell." I lied through my teeth. My back turned to him as I rummaged through my bag for my sweatpants to sleep in. I changed, completely ignoring Zay's frustrated mumbling.

"I'm not an idiot Lucas! I see how you look at her," he continued.

"Zay Maya is important to me. But as nothing more than a friend. Why can't you understand that?" I was trying to sound angry, but I don't think it was working. I wasn't angry because although it was annoying Zay wouldn't let it go, he was right. And he was just trying to help me. He just didn't understand the predicament.

"I understand you're a liar. You love her!" he raised his voice. "I just want you to be happy Lucas. Because you're my best friend," he said getting sentimental. I opened my mouth to speak, but stopped when I heard the shower turn off in the bathroom. Maya's quiet singing echoed in from the bathroom and I knew she would step into the room soon. This was definitely not the conversation I wanted her to walk into.

"Can we please drop this?" I whispered. I got a reluctant nod from Zay as Maya walked out from the bathroom. Silence ensued, Maya walking around to her bag to grab something to sleep in. Zay crawled into his side of the big bed with already fast asleep Farkle, giving me a look.

I didn't say a word to Maya as she went back into the bathroom to change. Even after she came back out and got settled in the small bed, it was quiet. The only noise was her small voice asking if I was ok with her turning out the light. I nodded back with no words. The light went out but some moonlight shown through the window and into the room. I could hear my 3 friends' breathing, steady and sure as they slept.

I laid awake in the darkness, unable to get my best friend's words out of my head. But I couldn't tell Maya how I feel. Don't think I haven't wanted to for the past 3 years, because I have. But she was always with Josh. Every time they fought, I thought about telling her. But I stopped knowing that I couldn't use her moment of weakness to my advantage. That's how I felt now but elevated. If I told her now, it was as though I was using her break-up to help myself. Taking advantage of her heart at a time when it's most fragile.

So for now, I would settle. Being her caring best friend would be enough. But what if that wasn't enough soon? There were already times when I felt like it wasn't enough, like if I didn't have more with her I would explode. Maybe inviting her on this trip was a mistake? Maybe this was too much time to spend together.

My hands slide over my face. This was so frustrating. I started to think about Farkle. If this was what he was going through since he was little, then god that kid deserves a break. It's only been about 4 years for me and I'm already about to crack. I glanced in Maya's direction. The covers laid over her, preventing me from seeing her face but I settled for watching the blanket move up and down slowly.

I don't know when I fell asleep. But I was dead tired so I'm not surprised I passed out out of the blue. But waking up came with pain. The couch, though pretty comfy as couches go, was not made for someone my height to be sleeping on. I rolled over as my now open eyes met with the morning sunlight. Groaning, I sat up, reaching behind me to try to message a part of my lower back. I thought I had woken up before anyone. That is until I heard Maya's voice. I looked over to the bed and saw it empty. The sound of her voice came again. I couldn't quite make out what she was saying, but I could hear it coming from the balcony off to the side of the room. Before I could get up to check on her, she opened the sliding door to the balcony and came in.

She hadn't yet noticed me awake and sitting up on the couch staring in her direction. I would've spoken, made her aware of her presence, but I was too busy noticing the tears in her eyes. Her quiet sniffle sounded like a bomb dropping on my heart. No, this wasn't the first time I had seen her cry. I had seen her cry just two nights ago and countless times before that. But I was supposed to be keeping her from crying on this trip and here she was, the sun barely up and she was already emotional. She turned, finally looking me in the eye. Her eyes were red with tears. She wiped it dry with the sleeve of her sweater and walked past me into the bathroom.

"Just let it go Lucas," she pretty much demanded in a sharp tone. She slammed the door to the bathroom shut, waking up Farkle. Of course Zay could sleep through anything, but Farkle looked up at me confused.

"What's going on?" he questioned groggily.

Not knowing exactly what was going on, I shrugged. "Maya's upset." I ended it with that. I resisted the urge to blame Josh out loud, even though I knew he was most likely who Maya was talking to outside.

Maya Hart was not ok; that was for sure.

 **A/N: Maybe a little bit of a filler chapter? The next chapter has a lot more angst and a little humor lol**

 **Not much to say in this author's note. Just that if you haven't taken a look at my Lucaya one-shot complication story, you should check it out! And in other news, I'm currently working on an asshole!Friar story… so we'll see how that turns out. I like it so far:) lol**

 **ALSO I know we're a little down about the show being cancelled but you know what? I have so much faith that it will get picked up by Netflix so it's Disney Channel's loss. It can really reach its full potential on Netflix without all the limitations that Disney Channel put on the writers… and Netflix is A1 at making shows so maybe this is for the best!**

 **Random question: Does anyone watch iZombie? I just finished watching it and I would love to discuss if anyone else is into it lol**


	5. Ball of Yarn?

**A/N: Some Zay funniness and angsty Lucaya… plus a raccoon…**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 5: "Ball of Yarn?"

Quiet. Extreme quiet.

All there was in the car was painfully awkward, extreme quiet. We had gotten back on the road pretty quickly after waking up earlier this morning. Even though I was the only one who saw Maya's emotional cries, everyone could tell she was on edge. She was silent, unless she needed something and if she was asked something, she met the question with a short one-word answer. Everyone was pretty much leaving her alone. I wanted nothing more than to steal the phone out of her hand as I kept seeing her look down at it with anger or sadness. It was devastating.

Farkle was on edge, too. Not as much as Maya but he was feeling the pressure of telling Riley. I tried asking him about it before we left the hotel but he didn't want to talk. He insisted that he had to think everything out. It didn't surprise me that he was trying to solve this emotional problem with logic and thinking. But he assured me he would come to me or Zay if he did feel like he needed help.

After a while, the silence became too much for Zay. I looked up to see him staring around at everyone in the car.

"Sooooo…anyone want to say anything?" he asked carefully.

I glanced around at everyone. His question was met with no change in the complete silence we had been riding in for a couple hours now. Maya sat beside me, staring out the window with her long face and sad eyes; I caught Farkle's face in the rear view mirror and saw that his worried expression was still largely present; Zay glanced back at me, scared. My eyebrows raised, smirking. It was a nice attempt to start a conversation, but half of this car was too far gone with emotion. But that wasn't enough for Zay.

"Ok you know what? This is enough. All of you are being all mopey and sad," he burst out suddenly. Maya looked up at him with a light scowl.

"I'm not sad."

"Trust me Hart, you're sad," Zay went on. "I think we should go do something." We all looked confused. How were we supposed to go do something? We were in the car, on a trip, on a schedule.

And leave it to Farkle to bring up the schedule. "No! We are on a schedule!"

"Will you calm down? We will make up the time loss alright? I promise," Zay teased.

Even I knew we had to stick to the schedule pretty closely. We had to be for school and even with the schedule, we were just barely making it back. My guess was Zay didn't really put too much importance on getting back in time for school, considering how nervous he was to start. I looked over to Maya. Maybe getting out of the car would be good for her. She didn't have anything to do but think about Josh and the break-up while we were stuck in the car. I could definitely stand to stretch my legs.

"What do you have in mind Zay?" Maya asked, not taking her eyes away from the window, staring at the trees as they passed by.

"Ok stay with me on this… we are actually very close to the country's largest ball of yarn!" He sounded a little too excited for a big ball of yarn to be the endgame.

"What?" Maya asked, speaking for all of us.

Zay's head nodded up and down wildly, showing just how excited he was. "It's on the way and it's just a few exits down highway," he explained.

I smirked at Maya. She was still staring blankly at Zay, who was glancing back and forth at everyone in the car. He clearly didn't catch the vibe that we weren't nearly as thrilled about this tourist spot as he was. I mean, honestly, how entertaining could a big ball of yarn be? Even if it was 30 feet tall, you could only stare at it for so long.

"Is he being serious?" Maya asked me in a whispered tone.

"He's 100% serious."

It took some debate but somehow Zay was able to convince us it would be fun to stop at the 'monument' as he called it. Still not sure how he got us on board with this one. Farkle only went along with it because I threw in my theory about how you honestly couldn't spend more than 15 minutes tops there. I hoped Maya would cheer up. She loved dorky tourist stuff. Sometimes on weekends, when Josh was too busy, we would go do tourist stuff like go to the top of the Empire State Building or sit in Times Square. She cracked a small smile when she saw the sign pointing out directions to what seemed to be a 'big deal' to people living in the area. But besides that, she still looked completely deflated.

Farkle pulled the car into a parking space. I was surprised to see how many other people were there. It was mostly families. I figured tourists, families on end-of-summer road trips. Zay opened his car door before the engine was even shut off. I could not bring myself to understand how excited he was to see this thing. It was literally just a really big ball of yarn. When did that become his thing? I looked over to see Maya give a small giggle as she shared my amusement of Zay. Maybe Zay had a good idea. Maybe this little stop would cheer Maya up; or at least distract her.

We stood in front of the big yarn ball for all of five minutes, listening to Zay read "fun facts" from the brochure. I was utterly bored and I could tell Maya and Farkle were too. But I was internally thankful for this little activity because I kept looking at Maya. Little stolen glances revealed Maya's smile in between facts as Zay read them aloud. That smile that I missed so much; there it was.

I looked away only to look back and see that smile had disappeared again. It was replaced with a worried frown as the blonde looked down at her phone.

"I'll be right back you guys," Maya spoke quietly before putting her phone up to her ear and answering with a strained 'hello.' I watched her as she walked away, my eyes glued to the back of her head. I hadn't even noticed Zay had stopped riddling off facts and awes and was now looking at me. We were making our way to the gift shop by the time Zay said anything. Farkle was muttering to himself, curious about what one would even sell at a gift shop for the biggest ball of yarn. His attention was off of Zay and I as we walked in the background.

"Don't you want to go after Maya?" he asked. I simply breathed out a huff of air, not wanting anything to do with another round of this same conversation. I didn't understand why he couldn't just let it go. I know he was right about my feelings about Maya, I guess they were pretty obvious. Hiding my feelings might not be my greatest talent; Maya seemed pretty oblivious though, just my luck. But Zay should understand that I really just don't want to talk about it. I reject the conversation every time he brings it up and deny having any romantic feelings towards Maya. If he were really my best friend, he would just drop it.

"Zay I'm not talking about this right now," I said without looking at him. My voice had audible traces of agitation and tension.

Zay ignored any sign of me not wanting to talk. "Do you think it was Josh on the phone?" he continued.

Of course I thought it was Josh. Everything in her life was Josh right now, much to my dismay. I quickly recognized the broken down look in her eyes when she answered the phone before walking off. I had become quite familiar with it. Not just over the past couple of days, but over the past couple of years. It was a feeling I can't even describe, having to see her blue eyes that usually are so bright and full of life fill up with sadness. So yes, I knew it was Josh on the phone. God only knows what they were talking about.

I quickly changed my somber, and slightly angry, facial expression before Zay could notice. With a blank face I answered Zay with a lie.

"Man I don't know. And I don't care! It's none of my business who was on the phone with her. For all we know it was her mom asking how the trip is going," I rambled. I forced myself to stop talking before it became too obvious that I did in fact care about who was on the phone with Maya.

"You really just don't care?"

Honestly, the more he asked me if I cared, the more I cared. I didn't answer Zay, just looked straight ahead as we walked into the gift shop. Unable to distract myself, I thought about Maya. She had been gone for a while. Knowing Josh, he had probably picked a fight. It seemed he did that a lot, or maybe that's just how Maya saw it. But that's all I knew of the fights they had; all I knew was Maya's side of it. Not that I cared at all what Josh's side was.

"Zay why don't you help Farks pick out a gift for Riley," I said turning back towards the door. I needed Zay distracted and I figured Farkle could use a distraction too. "I'm going to go to the bathroom before we get back on the road." I turned, completely ignoring the look Zay gave me as I exited. He knew it was a lie, and he knew where I was really going.

The area wasn't large. I looked everywhere for Maya, back at the giant ball, at the small picnic area, and even back at the car. I was actually starting to get worried when I couldn't find Maya. I thought about texting her and asking if she was fine and where she was. But I pushed the thought out of my head, knowing she would just tell me she's fine and then come to me. Her face would be clean of any trace of despair.

I turned around the last place I hadn't looked yet, the bathroom building, and saw her. Her back was facing me but I knew it was Maya. Her blonde hair cascaded down her back and I could see her holding her phone to her ear. Just as I was about to walk up to her, I stopped, hearing her speak into the phone.

"No Josh that's not the point!" she cried. Her voice was choked up and I could tell tears were falling down her face, even though I couldn't see it. "Why are you being such a jerk about this?" I felt the anger creep back inside me. "I didn't do anything. How in the world can you put all of this on me?" It killed me to listen like this. But it killed me more that Maya still wouldn't talk to me about what happened between her and Josh. "That's not fair Josh!" I wanted to stop her crying. All I wanted to do was make her feel better. "Josh…Josh?" Her hand pulled the phone back and looked at it, then let it fall to her side. He hung up on her. Reluctantly I uncurled my fists. I had to focus so much on letting my body relax that I didn't notice Maya turning around and spotting me.

"Maya I-" she cut me off, walking right past me.

"Leave it alone Huckleberry," she said, wiping the tears from her face.

But of course I had no intention of letting it go. She was suffering and I had never 'let it go' before when she was sad. Anytime she was sad, I was there for her and I wasn't going to stop now.

I walked after her, wanting to get to her before Zay and Farkle came out of the gift shop. She was back at the car, leaning against it looking at her phone screen with frustration by the time I made it to her side. I did the only thing I could think of to help her right now. I reached my hand out and snatched her phone out of her hands.

"Lucas give me my phone!" she snapped. I held it above my head so that even with her tiny jumps to try and retrieve it, she failed. It was a low blow, I know, but I couldn't think of anything that could help her right now besides getting this phone away from her.

"Maya you are driving yourself crazy with this phone! I see you texting and fighting with someone. I know it's Josh," I complained. Maya, seemingly ignoring me, continued to try to jump to the height of her phone.

"It's none of your business Sundance just give me my phone back!"

"No! Look you don't have to tell me what happened between you two, but I care about you too much to not try and help you," I insisted, shoving her phone in my jacket pocket and protecting it with my hand.

"Are you serious right now?" She was pissed. I could tell. And I didn't blame her. But this was important. This was for her, even if she couldn't see that. I nodded in reply, but couldn't get words out when I suddenly heard Farkle's voice yelling over to us.

"Alright guys time to get back on the road!"

Me and Maya were in the middle of a stare down. Her angry eyes were hinting with gloom. It was almost enough to make me give her phone back, just so she wouldn't be mad at me. Instead I kept it shoved down in my pocket, knowing that if I gave it back to her, she would just continuing talking to Josh, getting mad and crying. Not on my watch.

With a smirk, I turned and got in the car. I watched as she stared at me in disbelief through the window. She gave up, then walked around to the other side of the car and got in, her glare never giving up.

The phone stayed in my pocket as the car drove off back onto the highway. I expected Maya to hurl over my body and try to steal the phone back. But she didn't. Every so often I would see her peak over at me with a weak glare, then turn back to stare out the window. I like to think she appreciated me taking her phone away; even if it was deep down, like in her toes deep down. Part of me felt like I was treating her like a child by taking her phone away. I felt bad for making her feel like that. But I had to do this for her, because it was for her. I just didn't want her to be sad anymore. The more I think about it the more I can't help but think maybe this trip wasn't the best idea. We were stuck in a car all day, what else was she going to do besides text Josh. But this was so different from how their fights usually went. I was out of my element on this one! Generally, Josh and Maya would have their fight and then just wouldn't talk to each other for a day or two. Then Maya would come to me out of the blue telling me they had made up and it was fine until their next fight.

This was different.

They were talking, fighting actually. My hands ran over my face and through my hair. I wish I knew what happened, what Josh did. Because whatever it was that happened, it's worse than anything that has ever happened between the two of them.

I was so lost and focused on my thoughts, I didn't notice Zay and Farkle bickering in the front seat. It was dark now and we had been driving for hours since stopping at the tourist site. I lit up my phone screen to see the time. 9:49. According to Farkle, we were supposed to be at the next hotel by 9:30. I tuned into the conversation the two boys were having in the front seat.

"How could you get us lost?" Zay mumbled, looking through a couple stacks of what looked like maps. Lost? We couldn't be lost, Farkle had everything planned out.

"Well I didn't count on my phone not having service to work the navigation!" Farkle bit back. I looked over to Maya. Her eyes were closed and her head was leaning against the window. She seemed undisturbed by the commotion in the front. But I was worried.

"Lost?" I said, leaning to the front seats. I grabbed Farkle's phone to see what he had said was true. There was one bar, enough to maybe make a call or send a simple text, but no wifi or LTE service. The navigation was completely down. I kept trying to reload the app, but every time I pressed the reload button, a message would pop up telling me there was no signal connection. I checked my phone and found the same thing. I checked Zay's phone then Maya's and found nothing.

I looked out the window of the moving car. We were on a 2-lane road with huge pine trees towering over us on either side. Where the hell were we?

"Alright pull over. We need to collect our thoughts," I suggested. Farkle didn't take a second thought. He nodded his head and pulled the car over to the side of the road, turning off the engine. My hand reached over to Maya to gently shake her awake. "Maya wake up."

Her eyes fluttered open, confused as to why I woke her. Her first thought was probably that we had arrived at the hotel, but after looking out her window and seeing nothing but a dark road in front of us and trees at our sides, she looked at me confused.

Zay took the liberty of answering before she could even get the question out. "Farkle got us lost." Farkle scoffed and reached over to grab some of the maps Zay held in his lap, scouring through them.

"Where are we?" Maya asked. That question was on my mind as well. My eyes shifted between the two boys in the front seat, but landed on Farkle when I saw Zay's eyes settle on Farkle. Farkle looked up, nervous to provide an answer.

"I didn't even notice when my navigation stopped working! I don't know where we lost the signal," he said, looking through the maps in his lap. "I think I should have made a turn a while ago but I don't know! Maybe it's farther up through this stretch of road." I could tell he was confused. He felt bad about getting us lost, but I had to understand at least a little bit. This whole trip was consuming his mind; Riley was consuming his mind. And I could definitely understand that. Not with Riley obviously, but with Maya. The blonde at my side reached forward and grabbed a couple of the maps from Zay, as well.

"What are all of these maps?" her curious voice asked with raised eyebrows.

"Farkle's dad had all these maps in the glove compartment. We're not too sure which one is the right one," Zay answered, his eyes not leaving his own stack.

Each with our own stack of maps in hand, we searched through them for what seemed like forever. Yawns escaped each of our mouths repeatedly showing how tired we were and how much we just wanted to get to our hotel and sleep. I'm sure Farkle was freaking out with the lost time we were experiencing in his precious schedule right now with this whole mess. I noticed Zay keep taking breaks to glare up at Farkle. Farkle pretended not to notice, but I know he did. Maya and I noticed that's for sure; we kept giving each other amused chuckles in the back whenever we saw my Texas friend frown at the genius.

Maya was finally the one to wave one of her maps around enthusiastically. "I found it! It's this one!" She passed it over to Farkle, who inspected it to make sure it was in fact the one we were searching for.

"This is why we brought you along Maya!" Farkle exclaimed. He studied it, trying to get a bearing on where he was. His finger followed the lines of the roads on the map, trying to find out which one led to the street where the hotel was. The rest of us looked on anxiously ready to get going and get into a bed. It seemed Farkle had figured it all out when he folded the map back up and stuck it up on the dashboard. "Alright finally we can get back on the road!"

Zay suddenly held out his hand, motioning for Farkle to stop before he stuck the car key back in the ignition.

"Wait. I need to use the little boy's room before we head out," he spoke, unbuckling his seat belt.

"What? Zay we're already so off schedule," Farkle urged. His dumbfounded expression never left Zay as the latter opened the door of the car to get out.

"Well I was planning on just holding it until we got to the hotel, but we just had to spend 45 minutes getting lost and looking through a whole country full of maps, so now I can't hold it anymore," Zay explained with an annoyed smirk. Zay got very cranky when he was tired. It had been a long day for everyone. Farkle was stressed and anxious, and tired like the rest of us, but he just needed to let Zay use the bathroom and then take him to a hotel so he could sleep. My hand landed on Farkle's shoulder as comfort.

"Why don't we all get out, get some air, and take a bathroom break," I suggested. I was just trying to mediate the situation. I received a weak smile from Farkle. The three of us boys opened our doors and stepped out, feeling the cool night air hit our bodies. I looked back, about to close my door, when I saw Maya still firmly planted in her seat.

"I don't have to go to the bathroom," she said, leaning up to see me better.

"Then just stay here," I answered back. Zay and Farkle had already found spots just past the visible tree line to use as a bathroom. About to close my door, Maya crawled over to what was my side of the back seat to look me in the eye.

"You're just going to leave me here?"

"Maya you'll be fine. We're in the middle of nowhere," I chuckled. A little glimmer of worry twinkled in her eyes but I thought it was cute. I wouldn't go too far and by now Farkle and Zay were probably half way done with their business and would be back any second.

"Exactly, you won't even be able to hear me scream," Maya said with a blank tone and expression. It was wrong to laugh but I couldn't help it. Giving in, mostly because I actually really had to pee, I offered my hand to the blonde to help her out of the car. I'll admit I felt a little drop in my heart when she took her hand away from mine to stuff them in her sweater pockets, but I ignored the feeling and closed the car door, leading the way to the tree line.

The dark forest was a bit creepy and I could hear small sounds of rustling deeper into the trees. I picked a spot where I could still see the car and told Maya to stand just at the tree line so she was within sight of me, but so it wouldn't be weird with me doing my 'personal business.' I could see why she didn't want to be left alone by the car. It was a bit sketchy, especially if you're 5 feet tall and aren't used to forests like Maya, growing up in the city and all. But there was nothing to worry about. I wouldn't let anything happen to her.

I finished quick but all but rushed back to the car with Maya when we heard Farkle scream. We soon ran to the sight of Farkle and Zay standing by the car, near terrified of something.

"What's wrong?!" I yelled, coming up to them. Farkle pointed a shaky finger at the car, but words couldn't seem to leave his mouth. I walked up to the car slowly and looked inside, only to see a fully grown raccoon sitting in the passenger seat. The little guy, well huge guy actually, was nibbling on some crackers I'm sure he found in Zay's pack.

"How did that get in there?" Maya asked, stepping up beside me to see the sight for herself. Farkle cast his eyes on Zay, who looked down at the grown stammering to get words out.

"I might have accidentally left my door open when I went to use the bathroom. I guess he smelled my food," he explained in a low voice. Zay had to be tired if he was making mistakes like that. We were from Texas, we knew better than to leave food unattended by the forest.

"Well just get it out!" Maya shrieked. I tried swatting at it with my hand, seeing if it would just run back out the door at the sight of people. But that was not the right idea. Instead of running, the animal swatted back at me with its clawed hand. Tiny hands that I knew belonged to Maya pulled me back as the animal hissed at me. He decided he wanted to crawl into the backseat of the car and started digging his hands into the seat cushions. "Somebody get it out!"

We decided to open all the car doors to give him plenty of exits from the vehicle. Once they were all opened, we had to start trying anything to get him out before he decided to make a home in the car.

"I want you to stay back here," I whispered to Maya, pulling her back gently a ways away from the car. I didn't want her getting hurt from the tiny beast. She looked up at me. I had to fight myself before I got sucked into those blue eyes. The raccoon was my priority right now; Maya could reclaim that spot after we were all back in the car safely.

Once Maya was at a safe distance, I huddled up with Farkle and Zay to figure out a way to get the raccoon out. We looked pretty stupid if I'm being honest. We tried scaring it out; coming from all sides; even Zay climbed on top of the car to make noise and 'annoy it out' as he said. Nothing worked. But at least Maya was entertained. I would look up to see her smiling and laughing at us as we tried every stupid way to get the animal out of our car and back into the forest. No doubt if she had her phone, Maya would have caught our whole trial on video. I was just glad to see her smile again, a real smile.

"This isn't working!" Maya finally yelled. With wide eyes we stared at her.

"Any better ideas blondie?" Zay asked. We were all tired and we were willing to hear solutions.

"Well you can't scare it out, so-"

"Lure it out!" I guess Farkle caught on to what Maya was going to say because he cut her off to offer the idea up himself.

Farkle walked around the side of the car to get in through Zay's passenger seat door. None of us knew what he was doing. My eyes shifted back and forth between him and the animal as it sat in the back seat. It didn't seem to notice Farkle moving around in the front seat, but we all kept a close eye on it, ready to alert Farkle should we see the raccoon make any sudden movements in Farkle's direction. Maya leaned in a little too close in the backseat and didn't notice the raccoon make eyes up at her. I noticed. Just in time, I pulled Maya back, her face just barely missing the small jump the animal made at her. She froze as I held her back; I froze too, not quite ready to ask if she was hurt just on the off chance she was.

"Are you ok?" I finally got out as she pushed her hair back. I kept my hand on the small of her back, my fingers softly moving, barely even noticeable. She nodded, still shaken.

"Yeah. Thanks Huckleberry."

Determined to not move my hand until she hinted that she wanted me too, I kept it there. She didn't seem to mind. Part of me considered that she was too wrapped up in this raccoon business to even notice my hand settled on her back. Maybe it was stupid for me to even be thinking about my hand and Maya's back at a time like this. Maybe it was selfish. I couldn't decide what it was by the time Farkle had made his way over to the rest of us. He had a couple crackers in his hand and started shaking them in the raccoon's face, slowly backing up to lure the animal out.

"Come on. Come get the crackers," he cooed. The rest of us watched in suspense. Our eyes hovered on the raccoon as it stared at Farkle and the food he held. My hand would pull Maya back when she leaned too far in, wanting to avoid another near attack. It took a couple minutes of trying but the animal finally decided it wanted the cracker more than it wanted to be in the car.

It lunged out of the car towards Farkle. Everyone released some sort of scared or startled sound, Maya screaming. I pulled Maya back, scared se would be caught in the raccoon's path as it lunged out of the car at top speed. I should have been worried about Farkle, as he was the one holding the cracker; he was the target of the animal. But no, I found myself completely and totally making sure Maya Hart was safe.

Before I knew it, Maya had leapt off the ground and into my arms, releasing a little yelp. I didn't know what to do. My arms held her protectively as I felt the breeze blow her hair up against my neck as I held her up there. I turned my head a bit to meet her blue eyes with my green ones.

"You alright?" My voice was low, almost as if I only wanted her to hear me. She didn't speak, just nodded. Her eyes looked scared. I had an overpowering feeling that it was of more than just the little incident we just had with the forest animal. I hoped my eyes looked safe; I hoped she felt safe.

Our moment was cut short by cheering coming from Farkle. We broke our eye contact to see the genius re-enter the car, quickly wanting to leave before the raccoon came back to reclaim its spot. Zay stared at Maya and I, a smirk planted on his face. Maya didn't notice him, but she climbed down from my arms as she saw my face change. My face had changed to an expression of indifference as a disguise from Zay's all too knowing glance. Without a word, she got into the car and situated herself in the seat. I didn't feel like hearing anything from Zay, so before he could get could get words out himself, I climbing into the car and shut the door.

I looked over at Maya but she was fixated on her entangled fingers that sat in her lap. I wish I could read her mind, know what she was thinking. I wish she would just tell me what she was thinking, feeling, so I could tell her how I'm feeling.

 **A/N: For this story I was very inspired by cliché rom-com moments… so expect more of this lol Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Next chapter will be up soon and it will be a Zay/Lucas friendship chapter.**

 **Don't forget to review! Please please please! Love you guys:)**


	6. Curiosity

**A/N: Next chapter up! This one is Lucas/Zay friendship chapter…**

 **I don't own GMW, I just own the plot of this story.**

Chapter 6: "Curiosity"

We ended up having to turn back around once we got back on the road and go back about 12 miles and turn up a side road, which actually led to a town. Once we pulled into the hotel, we were all quick to get out. Farkle had made the call with the hotel earlier in the day to make sure we had a room big enough for 4 people instead of 3 so the room had two queen sized beds in it. Maya was quick to pass out in one of them and Zay was right behind her, passing out in the opposite bed. As much as I wanted to pick the bed Maya had chosen, I knew I would receive relentless teasing from Zay and he would never stop giving me the 'I know you love Maya' look. It was an unbelievably annoying look. So, letting myself down, I changed into my sleep clothes and crawling into the bed that had Zay on the opposite side.

I would have felt completely natural sleeping in the bed with Maya. Not that sleeping in the bed with Zay was weird, after all we had been friends for a long time. We used to share a bed when we were little and had sleepovers. But Maya and I shared a bed sometimes too. It wasn't crazy for Maya to fall asleep at my place, usually in the bed with me. It was weird, normally it took me forever to fall asleep. Probably because I have too much stuff on my mind. But when Maya's there and I can feel her calm breathing next to me, I fall right to sleep.

Maya wasn't next to me though. Zay was. And as much as I loved Zay, it wasn't the same as having Maya. All the lights in the room were off and I held an object in my hand. As I stripped off my jacket upon entering the hotel room earlier, I realized I still had Maya's phone. She was too tired to bug me to give it back and I was too tired to even remember it was tucked away safely in my pocket. I twirled it around in my hands, turning the screen on and off.

"Lucas will you chill with the light?" I heard Zay grumble as he turned over to face away from me and the bright light of the phone.

"Sorry," I replied, not really caring.

The thought of unlocking the phone rumbled through my head. The horrible thought of going into Maya's messages. The thought of invading her privacy and giving into my overwhelming curiosity by reading through her messages with Josh. The urge to type in the passcode to her phone and read every line of text the two were sending to each other surged through my fingers. Different ways of rationalizing the invasion bounced around in my head, but I shoved each one out knowing I couldn't do it. It was becoming harder and harder to ignore the idea as the minutes ticked on.

"Lucas! Seriously the light!" Zay whispered, his voice harsh in tone, as I kept lighting the phone screen up over and over again. He eyed the phone and quickly put it together that it wasn't mine. "Is that Maya's phone?"

I nodded as if it was nothing to bat an eyelash at. "I took it from her." Just as the words left my mouth I realized how insane it sounded. I, a grown-up, took away another grown-up's phone. Maya wasn't 12, but I took her phone away. I could tell Zay was thinking the same thing.

"And why would you take Maya's phone away?" he asked, sitting up. He probably figured this would turn into a real conversation, despite the fact that it was midnight and we were both exhausted. I stayed in my laying position, the phone still twirling in my hands.

The conversation continued in hushed tones, as to not wake Maya or Farkle. Especially Maya since the conversation was entirely about her, but I knew not to worry too much; Maya could sleep through anything, she and Zay had that in common.

"Because all she's done this whole trip so far is look at it sadly and I know she's talking to Josh. He upsets her and I don't want her to be sad. The whole point of bringing her on this trip was so that she wouldn't be sad. So until she's not sad anymore, I took her phone away," I explained. I wasn't looking at him, but I could tell Zay was staring at me with that annoying look. The look he gave me when I put too much emotion in my voice while talking about Maya or smiled at her for too long or he caught me refusing to let go of her when we hugged.

It was a horribly annoying look. And although I wasn't looking, I knew he was giving that look to me now.

"So why are you looking at it now?" he chose to ask instead of making another comment about how much I love her.

"Because…" I trailed off, not knowing what part of the truth to tell Zay. "Because I don't know why her and Josh broke up and it's bugging me."

"She doesn't want to talk about it," he said simply. He didn't get it, he didn't know just how close me and Maya were. Never once did I tell him about all the times Maya and I sat in my room and had serious conversations or all the times she cried to me telling me about Josh.

"I just want her to open up to me," I said more to myself than to him.

The screen of her phone was lit up in front of my face. With just a few taps I could open up the phone and finally know what Josh did to Maya and why they broke up.

"You can't look through her phone Lucas. That's ridiculous!" he tried to convince me. I barely listened to his words. My head turned to catch a glimpse of Maya shift in her sleep, her hair falling over her face. "Lucas," Zay interrupted my daze. "If Maya wanted to tell you what was going on with her and Josh, then she would. You can't invade her privacy like that. You know that's wrong." I finally turned my gaze to my best friend as he tried to talk some sense into me. "You don't even know her passcode," he finished.

"It's 1645," I said. Zay looked at me confused, but I had to hold myself back from laughing loudly. "It's the address of that taco place she likes on 28th street." Zay shared in my attempt to hide a laugh that was too loud.

"Why is it so important to you to find out why they broke up?"

"Because it's bad this time Zay. They've never actually broken up before,"

"Well they never even really fight," Zay spoke. He didn't know the truth. Most people didn't, not even Riley. I wanted to tell him. I wanted to tell him the truth that Maya and Josh fought all the time; that Josh wasn't the great guy he seemed to be from afar because he managed to make Maya cry way more than he should. For a moment, I struggled with the feeling that telling Zay would be like betraying Maya. She trusted me enough to come to me whenever she and Josh were fighting or whenever she was just having a hard time in her life. Could I really just tell Zay? There was so much going on in my head it was a complete tangled mess up there.

"They fight all the time," I said in a whisper. In a way, the words almost slipped out of my mouth without meaning to. Like there was so much in my head that I was holding in that something had to come out. Confused, Zay looked at me. "They fight literally all the time Zay." I figured it already came out, might as well just keep going. But I had to make it clear to Zay that this could not get back to Maya.

"How do you do that?"

"Because Maya tells me. She tells me every single time they get into a fight, which is all the time. She crawls through my window and cries and complains about how much of an asshole Josh is. But no matter how much of a dick he is or what he says or does, they always get back together a day later and no one ever knows how much of a train wreck their relationship is. No one but me," I complained. I felt like I couldn't stop talking. Word vomit spilled out of my mouth with no end in sight. I never really got to complain or vent about Maya's relationship to anyone. No one could know Maya came to me so much with her problems or that I comforted her so many times. So there was no one I could ever vent to about it all. It was like 3 year's worth of much needed venting all coming out at once. "And now something so bad has happened between them that they actually ended the relationship. Something so bad that she won't even tell me what happened. So call me crazy but I just want to protect her. And I can't do that if she won't tell me what Josh did," I ended. My voice sounded cut off, and it was. I had to cut myself off with force before I revealed any true feelings for Maya. Even though Zay pretty much already knew about my feelings for the pretty blonde in the other bed, I had yet to confirm. I didn't know if I would ever confirm, to him or the blonde.

And there it was, the annoying look. As much as I tried, I had already said too much.

"How about instead of spying on her, you tell her how you feel?" he suggested. If only it was that easy. I rolled my eyes, playing the part of her friend. That role was getting pretty tiring, but it's what she needed.

"Zay I'm not going to have this conversation with you again. I got over Maya a long time ago," I said, letting her phone fall onto my lap. I fought the urge to look over to her sleeping form. That would sure give me away.

"You know you're not just lying to me when you say that. You're lying to yourself," he smirked.

"I'm just being her friend Zay." I wished I never said anything to him. I wished I had just put Maya's phone down and went to sleep the first time Zay woke up. This whole conversation could have been avoided.

"Let me see if I have something straight here? You really just let her crawl into your window and you spend hours comforting her about her apparently broken relationship and then you keep her secret about said relationship?" I nodded, not seeing the point of his recap. "God you got it so bad for her."

"If I was in love with Maya do you really think I would let her complain to me all the time about Josh?"

"If you were Lucas Friar, then yes. Because you are too good to turn her away when she needs you."

It was true. Truer than Zay could ever know. Every time Maya came to me to cry or vent about anything, not just Josh, it was hard. I hated seeing her as sad as she was. Most of the time she cried. Most of the time Josh had done something that made me want to knock his teeth in. But then again, him just existing had a way of making me want to knock his teeth in. He got to be with Maya and he didn't appreciate it.

I didn't want to have this conversation anymore. I picked up Maya's phone and lit up the screen one last time before sliding it under my pillow as a way to hide it from Maya. I rolled over, leaving my conversation with Zay without any last words. Luckily he understood and I felt the bed shake as he laid back down. It was possible he was just too tired to continue the conversation and took the out as an opportunity to go back to sleep. At any other time, he would no doubt have forced me to keep talking. I had gotten closer than comfort to admitting my feelings for Maya. I didn't entirely understand why I was so against telling Zay about how much I cared for Maya, that I wished daily that I was the one who got to be with her. But I just knew I didn't want him to know.

My eyes remained open a while longer, staring through the dark at Maya. The phone under the pillow would remain there. Zay may have driven me up the damn wall about the Maya thing, but I think he was successful at talking me off the ledge of searching through Maya's phone for information about Josh. She would tell me when she was ready. I hoped, at least.

 **A/N: Not a lot to say in this author's note. I just wanted to get this updated because I feel like it's been a good second without an update lol**

 **To the guest who commented on the last chapter: You Lucas is too wrapped up in Maya. Thank you for your constructive criticism! It's always accepted. Anyway in a way I agree with what you said when I go back and reread parts. But I do already have this whole story written and I'm currently working on a few other stories…I really don't want to go back to this story ya know? But I am keeping what you said in mind as I write other Lucaya stories:)**

 **In other news I saw SING and was oddly inspired for a new Lucaya story so I'll start writing that soon hahaha Love you guys!**


	7. Car Games

**A/N: Happy Valentine's Day loves! I feel like I don't update this story enough… I promise I'll be better! But enjoy this chapter now!**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 7: "Car Games"

My eyes were droopy the next day when we all loaded into the car. I regretted staying up, lying awake in bed thinking about Maya for so long. I felt so confused about everything. Luckily, I had managed to avoid looking through her phone. To be honest, I felt ashamed for even thinking that was an option. Maya's phone stayed tucked inside my pocket though. She seemed to not have that air of depression around her this morning, but I could tell she was still pretty down. My mind raced, trying desperately to think of a way to cheer her up. Little glances from my eyes kept finding their way over to Maya. She mostly stared out the window, looking at the trees and other cars as they all passed.

"Why don't we all play a game?" I suggested. I was met with everyone's stares, giving me confused looks. My suggestion came out of nowhere. Everyone in the car was pretty much minding their own business and then my voice rang out into the silence. Maya, the main object of my suggestion, blinked in bewilderment before turning her attention back to the window and the passing views outside of it. I looked over at Zay who must have noticed my sight hovering on Maya. If he gave me that look one more time, I might actually hit him.

"Why do you want to play a game?" Farkle's voice rang out as he turned the Kings of Leon song on the radio down a bit to hear me better.

I shrugged. It wasn't just for Maya, the more I thought about it. Now I won't lie, it was probably at least 80% about Maya. But I think everyone in the care could use some cheering up. Farkle was stressing every second of this trip and every mile that we got closer to Riley was weighing on him with more and more nerves. Zay, although annoying the crap out of me with all this Maya stuff, had nothing but time in the silence to think about starting college. Every mile we got closer to Riley meant another mile closer to going back home and once we went home, college started. He could hide it better than Maya and Farkle, but I was his best friend. He could tell my true feeling for Maya a mile away, even though I wouldn't admit it to him; and I could tell his true feelings about college a mile away, even though he wouldn't admit it.

"I think we could all use some cheering up. And a distraction," I answered in truth. Even I could use the distraction. I was dying. There was too much time on this trip for everyone to think about the one thing that was plaguing their mind at the moment and this silence wasn't helping anything.

"What kind of game?" Maya spoke up. I couldn't fight the smile that made its way to my face when I turned to see her looking at me. Maybe she in some way appreciated me taking her phone. I know she was still thinking about Josh, I know she was still sad, but not having her phone was helping.

"I have cards!" Zay answered for me. I actually didn't have many suggestions. I didn't realize what a lack of car games there were until Maya asked. Come to think of it, cards wasn't really a car game.

"But then Farkle can't play!" Maya cried, reaching forward to watch Zay take a deck of cards out of his bag. Maya immediately reached over and grabbed the deck out of his hands.

She snuck a look to me, accompanied by a little wink. She started shuffling the cards up with great skill, showing off the fancy shuffling tricks she could do. Her grandma was a little bit of a card shark and she taught Maya a lot. I learned that the hard way back when I let her talk me into a 'friendly' game of poker with her a couple years ago. I gave her the same shocked face then as Zay gave her months later when we thought it would be funny to hustle him on game night.

"I can play. I just have to be careful," Farkle broke up my mesmerized state. Maya had a little smirk on her face, the kind of smirk I hadn't seen in a while. Not even when she was dating Josh did she smile like that. Her little mischievous smirk had been missing for the past few months of their relationship. I soaked it in in this moment until I heard Farkle's voice ring through the car. "We just have to play something simple, like Go-Fish."

"I'm ok with Go-Fish," Maya stated, breaking her eye contact with me to deal the cards to everyone in the car.

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but the mood immediately lightened in the car when we started playing the game. Zay constantly glared at Maya, thinking she was going to pull some of her card shark genius out at some point. Maya and I couldn't stop ourselves from giggling in the backseat every single time we noticed the suspicious looks from the boy in the front. Farkle was able to drive and participate at the same time, although I made it clear to him that he was giving me some serious anxiety by doing that. Everyone was laughing, seemingly distracted from their mental pains. No one was frowning or wearing a look that demonstrated just how frustrated or nervous or angry or sad they were; it was like we were at a normal game night back at Riley's house like we used to have all the time.

After a few rounds of Go-Fish, Farkle suggested something different. We settled for the license plate game, which I had never played before. Zay suggested we play in teams so that Farkle could spend at least some time focused on driving rather than using all his energy searching for license plates. So, of course, I got paired with Maya. It was backseat vs. front seat.

Zay threw a fit when back seat kicked front seat's ass. His excuse was that we had 2 people focused fully on the game while he did most of his team's work on his own so Farkle could drive. Maya threw her blonde head back laughing while Zay complained about the unfair game. I all but zoned Zay out completely, fully focused on Maya and her laughter. Eventually, Farkle said he needed a food break more than anything. Maya was pretty hungry too, so was I. Zay seemed content eating the multitude of snacks he bought from the vending machine of the previous hotel.

"God I'm starving! When is the closest restaurant?" Maya whined from the backseat.

"Should be about another half hour. We're driving thru nothing here," Farkle explained. Nothing but mountains could be seen out the window. It was bad time to get hungry since there really seemed to be nothing around for a little while.

Suddenly it hit me. I dug around in my bag to find the red package. Zay wasn't the only one to make a little stop at the vending machine back at the hotel. My hand finally grasped onto the pack of red vines tossed haphazardly into the side of the backpack. Without wanting Farkle, or mostly Zay, to notice the exchange in the backseat, I tapped Maya's leg with the edge of the package. Her eyes glanced lazily over to me and down to the snack I knew was her very favorite. Wide-eyed and smiling, she grabbed the candy right out of my hand.

"Oh my god how long have you had these?" she asked. Although excited, her voice was hushed. I could tell she didn't want the boys in the front knowing these were in our possession.

"I bought them at the hotel. I know they're your favorite. I figured they could cheer you up," I answered back. Maya unwrapped the pack and took one out, handing another to me.

"You are the best Huckleberry."

Those red vines seemed to be enough to hold Maya over until we got to the next town. After a big traffic jam on the way, Farkle was adamant about just going to a quick fast food place for lunch and then getting back on the road to make up time. The genius was dead set on going thru a drive-thru to make it even faster but we talked him out of it, saying we all had to use the restroom and stretch our legs. We found a taco bell pretty quick and all piled out, Maya and Farkle sprinting into the bathroom as Zay and I got into the line.

All was fine until Zay decided to use our moments alone to bring up the one topic he wouldn't friggin' drop. "Car games? Working overtime to cheer up you girlfriend?" I sighed, dragging my hand across my face. Why couldn't he let this go?

"It was to cheer up everybody. And she's not my girlfriend, she is my friend," my harsh voice spit out.

"But you want her to be your girlfriend." It wasn't even phrased as a question, just as a blunt statement. Was he right? Absolutely. I thought about Maya being my girlfriend every day. But I just didn't want to discuss it; not now.

"Zay! Stop with the Maya thing alright! I do not like her like that! I don't know how many times I could say it! You are annoying the crap out of me with your 'you like Maya' this and 'you like Maya' that. I've told you multiple times I don't feel that way about her so please just drop it!" The anger poured out of me more than I thought it would. I don't know how I broke down so quickly but I couldn't hear this from him anymore. Zay's brows furrowed looking at me shocked.

"Maybe if you stopped hiding your feelings I wouldn't have to bring it up every 2 seconds."

"It's none of your business Zay whether or not I like Maya," I spit back. Both of us were getting heated now. I turned my gaze away and up to the menu to decide what I wanted, even though I couldn't even see straight enough to read the menu.

"It is my business that my best friend is happy and-"

I cut him off quick, wanting this conversation to be over. With only moments before Maya and Farkle would return from the bathroom, I ended the topic. "Well I'm not happy when you keep bringing this pointless subject up. So I'm serious drop it."

We were both angry, you could tell from the looks on our faces and the fact that neither of us would turn in the other's direction. Even when Maya and Farkle came back, they could sense the tension. Maya even turned to me and whispered 'What's with you two?" in my ear. I shook it off. It's not like I could exactly tell her we were fighting because it was difficult enough for me to deal with my feelings for her without Zay trying to bring it up and force it out of me every other minute in the day.

Our fight basically ruined everything once we all got back in the car. There was a huge cloud of awkward surrounding all of us. No one wanted to talk and Zay and I sure as hell weren't talking to each other. The only sounds were fast passing cars outside next to us and crunch of taco shells going into all of our mouths. I wanted to talk to Maya but I just felt so steamed. Zay's words kept coming back into my head but I didn't want them anywhere near me. The heavy silence sat in the car as the sun went down. Even when Zay insisted we stop for another restroom break, we all remained silent. Awkward looks and glances made their way around the car, landing on each face. But no words were spoken.

It was dark. The radio was playing a soft song by The Smiths. I was comfortably slumped down in my seat, staring out the window following the slow movement of a plane light up in the sky. Somewhere along the line, I was able to clear my mind of any thoughts. All of that was ruined when I felt a pressure on my shoulder, a slight weight. I looked down to see Maya's head laying on my shoulder. Her breathing was even and her eyes were closed, her mouth hanging open slightly like it did when she was asleep.

I could smell her peach shampoo. It invaded all of my senses, burrowing its way deep into my nose. I inhaled like an addict who had found his drug of choice. I had smelled it before; times when she slept at my house or I hugged her tightly. I could tell she had just washed her hair this morning. As I inhaled, all of Zay's words, the words I didn't want to think about, came rushing into my head. It was like an avalanche that I couldn't avoid. Maya did make me happy, Zay was right about that. That was something I would never deny. But if I told Zay just how much I truly did care about Maya, and in what way, he would no doubt make me do something about it; he would force me to tell her how I feel, not letting me rest until I did. As much as I wanted to be with Maya, it would only make me happy if she wanted to be with me too. And I didn't know if she did. We've been best friends for years now. As far as she knows my feelings for her went away our freshman year of high school when I officially started dating Riley; and as far as I know, her feelings for me died out at around the same time. Truthfully I didn't think my feelings for the small blonde on my shoulder ever went away, even while I dated Riley. I kept them under wraps and concealed, so well that sometimes I didn't think I had feelings anymore myself. The only thing worse than telling her how I feel and finding out that she didn't feel the same towards me was finding out she did feel the same way towards me. Right now was not a good time for her. It wasn't fair to her to put her in that situation. Her longest relationship just ended and not well, even though I still didn't know the direct reason. She was confused enough as it was; she was angry and frustrated and sad and I didn't want to add to that load. Not now. I didn't know if Zay would understand that. This was hard for me, being around her all the time but not actually being with her.

I admired what Farkle was doing. I know it was the scariest thing he could even think of doing. But it was something that I couldn't do. I didn't have as much courage as Farkle had to tell the girl I love how I feel. Farkle was driving across the whole country to tell his girl; I couldn't even tell mine and she was sitting right next to me! As much as I wanted to blame it all on not wanting to confuse Maya more than she already is, I was scared. I was scared of getting shot down or told that she didn't feel that way about me. Our relationship, the close one we developed over the past few years was something I didn't want to lose. And still wasn't quite sure if it would even be worth possibly ruining this bond that I loved so much.

Maya's head sleepily nuzzled closer into the crook of my neck. I tried, but failed, to conceal the smile on my face before Zay looked back and saw. Eye contact between me and him signaled that I still did not want to talk about it. He turned his head away but I snuck in one last inhale of that intoxicating peach scent before turning my head back around to stare out the car window, hoping to get back to that place where my mind was clear.

 **A/N: Maybe a filler? Whatever. The next chapter is important and moves the plot along so look forward to that! I'll update in a couple days!**

 **Love you guys so much! Please review and let me know how you guys are liking this story:)**


	8. A Different Kind of Feeling

**A/N: Quick update! Hope you enjoy this one! Heavy Lucaya lol**

Chapter 8: "A Different Kind of Feeling"

"Can someone please say something?" Maya spoke out into the dense silence.

We had arrived at the hotel about an hour ago, 30 minutes ahead of Farkle's schedule. The awkward tension from the car had not been resolved. The hotel room was just as weird and silent. Maya sat next to me on one of the beds as I flipped through the channels on the television. Zay was spread out on the other bed, while Farkle sat on the small couch on the side of the room, nervously tapping his finger on his leg. My guess was that he was the least bothered by the lack of talking among the group. His mind was too preoccupied with the thought that we were supposed to be at Riley's by tomorrow night. Maya, however, was stirring next to me.

"Both of you are acting so weird!" she directed at Zay and I. He and I glanced at each other with annoyed looks before turning our heads away. Maya sighed, looking over at me. "I'm hungry." Honestly, I felt like she just wanted to get out of the room. It didn't seem like Zay and I would be talking to each other at any point tonight. Granted, we wouldn't fight long, we never did; but it would not get resolved tonight. I wouldn't mind getting out of the room for a little while.

"You know what why don't we all go and get some food? I think I saw a little diner on the way here," Farkle suggested.

Before I could speak up, Maya's voice rang in my ears. "Me and Lucas could just go and bring food back?" She bounced up from her spot on the bed and slid on her denim jacket. Zay agreed immediately, writing down his order on a piece of paper from a notepad he found on the nightstand. We could use a break from each other. Even just the 20 minutes it would take Maya and I to get the food would help us recover from our little fight today. Within minutes me and the tiny blonde were settling into the front seats of the car. I tried my best to remember which way we had come to get back to the diner we passed just after getting off the freeway. Maya was no help since she didn't wake up from her nap on my shoulder until we pulled into the hotel parking lot.

"What's going on with you and Zay?" the blonde wondered out loud as we stopped at a stoplight. I knew she was bound to ask. "You guys have been so weird since we stopped for food earlier today."

"It's nothing. We're just having a little disagreement," I said, shaking my head. Obviously I couldn't tell her the truth. My hopes that she would listen to me and just let it go were completely dropped when she continued speaking.

"About what? Maybe I can help."

"I don't think this one is something you can help me with Shortstack," I laughed. Maya's face dropped. For the past few years, it wasn't just me who helped Maya with her problems, it was Maya who helped me with my problems. We came to each other for advice and for help. Yeah, she came to me more, but I trusted her with my problems as much as she trusted me.

I could tell she was a bit let down that I didn't tell her about my issue with Zay. I tried to keep my face calm and light so maybe she would think the fight really was something small, nothing that needed much help anyway. But, just like in the past, if the issue wasn't that big, I would tell her. I waited for her to turn her gaze away from me before letting a frown make its way to my face.

After a couple failed attempts to remember the way to the diner, we finally pulled into the parking lot. As I turned the engine off, Maya's voice caught my attention.

"I'm sorry," she spoke softly. Confused, I twisted my eyebrows towards the girl with sorrow in her blue eyes. "I know I've been super depressing lately." I chuckled a bit, shrugging off her apology. It was a completely unnecessary apology. I understood. And yes I've pretty much been using every inch of my strength to find ways to cheer her up, but I got why she was sad.

"Maya you do not need to apologize for that," I tried. I wasn't able to get out more words than that as Maya shot up a hand to stop me.

"No! You invited me on this trip to help me cheer up and all I've done is be a total downer. You didn't have to invite me Lucas."

"I'm not upset that you're a little down Maya," I soothed. She was tangling her fingers in her hair, her disappointed eyes flashing right into mine. "I just want you to talk to me. You and me… we've always been there for each other."

I didn't want her to feel attacked. I chose my words very carefully, wanting it to be clear that I cared what was going on with her.

"It's complicated," she whispered in a cracking voice.

"You're entire relationship with Josh was complicated." At first, I didn't know if that was the right thing to say. It didn't seem like a very sensitive thing to say. Luckily, Maya got a little laugh out. "But you have always come to me when you were hurt. And… I just want to help. Because I care about you."

My hand reached over to cover her little one. Instead she twisted her hand, letting her fingers intertwine into mine. It was unlike any moment we have ever shared together. In my head I wondered if she felt it too, or if it was just me in my semi-love sick phase. My whole body felt warm, radiating from my hand as it was clutched into hers.

"I want to tell you. And I need you to trust that I will. Just right now…I can't talk about it," her voice said emotionally.

My hand left the comfort of hers. It was a reluctant move but I knew that if I held it in there much longer that I wouldn't easily be able to prevent myself from kissing her. Inside my jacket pocket sat Maya's phone, like it had sat for the past couple days. After twirling it a couple times in my pocket, mentally preparing myself, I held it out in front of the tiny blonde. I knew once she took it from my hands, I would be stuck looking at her saddened expressions as she communicated with her jerk ex-boyfriend. I didn't know if I was ready for that, especially now when she just seemed to be cheering up a bit more. But I had no right to withhold her phone from her. It surprised me to see her eye the phone nervously before taking it back into her possession. Maybe she didn't know if she was ready to be in communication with Josh again.

"I shouldn't have taken it. You're not 2 years old," I laughed. I took a tiny moment, just a few seconds, to rejoice in the sound of Maya laughing with me. "I just didn't want you to be sad anymore." The moment of eye contact we shared could speak volumes. I may have been wrong to try to take her phone, I'll admit that much; but I stand by my reasoning. "I never want you to be sad."

"I know. Thank you," Maya replied genuinely. Her little hand shoved her phone into her pocket.

"You don't have to thank me for giving you your own phone back."

"Actually I was thanking you for taking it away," she corrected. There were some moments where Maya really confused me and this was one of them. Never did I think she would thank me for keeping her phone from her. Hell I just admitted I was wrong for taking it in the first place. "You suck sometimes Huckleberry. But most of the time you're pretty amazing." A small, but very genuine smile spread across her face. I couldn't stop one from coming to my face as well.

Reaching over, I wrapped one arm around her, pulling her in for a hug. My other arm stayed firmly at my side, fearing an actual full hug would make this moment too intimate. With my heart moving faster than my brain, I pressed a kiss down to the top of her hair. Honestly, it wasn't an unusual move for me, especially during times like this in the midst of much needed comfort. But this moment felt different than any other I had ever had with Maya. I couldn't quite put my finger on why, but I could feel it.

I wanted to pull away, before my feelings rose to my surface, but Maya's arms were still wrapped around me. She obviously didn't feel the same way about our hug being made too intimate. Why would she? She wasn't the one struggling with intense feelings for her best friend, feelings that go way beyond what you feel for a 'friend.' Maya pulled away, the peach scent of her hair still lingering in my nose. Her facial expression was odd, like something was off but she couldn't figure out what.

"We-we should, um, we should go in and get the, uh, f-food," she stuttered to get out. Some weird type of tension filled the space around us. I just nodded, not knowing how to break the tension; I didn't even know what caused the tension. It seemed to come out of nowhere and was completely out of character for Maya and me.

Awkwardly and quietly we walked into the diner and put in our order with a waitress. Maya chose an empty booth close to the door to sit in while we waited. Words were not spoken. Maya seemed to be oddly comfortable with the quiet space. I, on the other hand, could not stop myself from fidgeting and making secret glances in her direction. My hope was that at some point when I looked up I would be able to see her looking back at me. She never did; not that I saw at least. Her eyes were always roaming around the small diner or down on her hands as they were pulling on a string that hung off the hem of her t-shirt. I didn't know what to make of it. We had developed a relationship that meant we were always talking, not because it felt uncomfortable to sit in silence, but because our conversations just flowed naturally. One topic would lead into another until suddenly hours had passed.

But now we sat quietly, in a silence that felt more heavy than comfortable.

Finally our waitress came with two to-go bags full of food. I grabbed them, leading Maya and I to the car. The car ride wasn't much better than the diner was when it came to talking. Maya's fingers fiddled with the radio dial, trying to find a station with a song she liked. I focused on driving, even though there were not that many other cars on the road. It was a shorter drive back to the hotel since I managed to get a shortcut from the waitress back at the diner. Maya grabbed one of the food bags, as she was already picking at her onion rings from the bag the whole ride to the hotel. I grabbed the other one and we walked back up to the room; again no words being spoken. There wouldn't have even been any sound if Maya wasn't humming one of the songs she had heard on the radio.

I slipped the key card in the door and swung it open. On the edge of shouting out to announce we were back with the food, Maya hit my arm wanting me to take notice of the two boys asleep on one of the beds. My mind quickly processed the scene in front of me. My mouth suddenly hung open in shock, not because of the fact that they couldn't even wait for their food before falling asleep; but I looked over at the empty bed and I knew what it meant: Maya and I were going to be sharing a bed.

We had shared a bed before, on a couple occasions. But right now, with this weird air around us, I didn't know if it was a great idea; not that we had much of a choice. This time, when my stare turned from the bed over to Maya, her piercing blue eyes were already on me. She faked a smile before walking over to the bed and sitting just barely on the edge.

"So should we eat their food or just save it for them?" I asked, the awkward words escaping from my mouth to try and release some of this uninvited tension. Maya laughed, but just took the rest of her own food out of the bag and started eating.

We ate fast. Most of it was probably more due to the fact that we were pretty tired from a long day of driving, but I knew another reason was that we couldn't sit up with whatever this was between us. It had never been like this before with Maya, except years ago, the first time we tried to actually date. But that all got messed up. I used to think that maybe it was best that that happened, it was a step on the road to getting to where we were now, to a place where we were each other's best friend. What was the point of this now though? What were we getting to? Wasting no time after eating, we both changed into our sleep clothes and settled into bed, unsure.

"Lucas?" Maya's voice rang as we laid on our backs on the bed in the dark room.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for inviting me on this trip. I know it doesn't seem like it, but it really is helping," she thanked me. I didn't say anything, I didn't know what to say. My eyes hovered on hers, hoping she would keep talking or that I could think of something to say in return. My brain didn't work fast enough. Before I could think of something, Maya turned over and took a deep breathe, entering sleep soon after. I refused to spend another night sitting up thinking about how upset I was that I wasn't with Maya and that I couldn't just tell her how I feel or how pissed I was at Josh or how the blue of her eyes was my favorite color. Forcing myself, I turned around and closed my eyes, attempting to clear my head of all that was bothering me.

My eyelids didn't open until I felt sunlight shining on them. A soothing warmth made me want to stay in bed and keep sleeping. But I knew tonight was when we were supposed to arrive at Riley's and Farkle would be concerned with staying on schedule today more than ever. I didn't know what time it was but if the sun was up, then he would no doubt be waking up soon. I would rather get up now, comfortably on my own accord than to be forced up later by a nervous and anxious Farkle. My eyes finally opened slowly to reveal the cause of my cozy warmth. A little tuft of blonde hair rested just below my chin, tucked in perfectly. My arms wrapped around Maya's small sleeping body and her hands clutched at them, as if she was instinctively trying to keep me closer. Her whole body was curled up into my own body, my chest and abdomen pressing against her back. My eyes widened but I was quick to make sure no sound came out of my mouth. I didn't want her to wake up and feel as uncomfortable as I felt now.

Slow and careful, I slid my arms out from around her, which proved difficult with her grasping them. I rolled out of the bed, covering her with the blanket. This wasn't the first time I had shared a bed with the girl I had strong feelings for, but this was the first time we ended up like this in the morning.

I jumped when I heard the bathroom door open. I turned to see Zay walk out, a towel wrapped around his waist. Glancing over at the other bed, I realized it was just Farkle sleeping under the covers.

"Zay, I-I uh, I-" I stuttered my way through trying to find words to say.

"I already saw you and blondie cuddling up a storm Lucas. It's no big secret," he said casually, not skipping a beat as he walked over to his luggage and pulled out something to wear. I stared blank faced at him. Why wasn't he mocking me? Why wasn't he bugging me to death about how much I love Maya? This was prime ammunition for him on the Maya circuit.

"So why aren't you saying anything about it?" I wondered out loud, but quietly enough so Maya wouldn't wake up.

"Because I don't need to. You know what I would say, what I want to say, and you know I'm right."

A little visible smirk appeared on Zay's face. Although he wasn't facing me completely, I could see it and I knew it was directed at me. "Shut up," I remarked as I walked swiftly into the bathroom, shutting the door.

 **A/N: Did you guys like this chapter!? We still have some super rom-com style cliché moments coming up lol That was my inspo for this story definitely!**

 **Next chapter up soon! Review! I always update faster when I have more reviews;)**


	9. Explosion

**A/N: Things are about to get heavy…. Enjoy the angst! Lol**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 9: "Explosion"

"Can we stop for food?" Maya whined to Farkle, who's driving was suffering as his whole body filled with anxiety. He mentioned he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and was tossing and turning, waking up several times throughout the night. To my surprise, and immense luck, he hadn't been awake during the time I was cuddled up with Maya. But his exhaustion mixed with his worry about how his confession to Riley would go tonight, definitely had an effect on his driving.

"You know that seems to be the most popular question of this whole road trip," Farkle teased back.

It was obvious Maya and I were hungrier than the two boys in the front seat. Since they fell asleep the night before and weren't able to eat then, like me and Maya did, they ate their food this morning after reheating it in the microwave we had in our hotel room. Even my stomach was releasing little growls every now and then.

"I agree with Maya, Farks. I could go for some food," I suggested. "We are ahead of the schedule," I added. I could tell that last statement enticed Farkle by the little smile he gave me through the rear-view.

"When we get to the next town, we will stop and find a place to eat alright?" he promised. Maya and I both nodded, looking off in separate directions. The air around us wasn't as thick and heavy as it was last night, but Maya still didn't know about the position we ended up in earlier this morning. I didn't see the point in telling her, and thankfully, Zay hadn't said anything. But that doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about how we ended up this morning.

I couldn't ignore how right it felt to wake up entangled in her like that, holding her. I had wanted to do that for years. It was always Josh who got to do it. But this time it was me. Only, the moment also felt so wrong. I finally get to wake up with her in my arms, but it has to like this; when Maya still didn't even know it happened, when I had to sneak out of bed instead of getting to wake up and smile and relax into her, and when she was probably still thinking about Josh instead of me. Everything felt messy and I can honestly say I had never been more confused about my feelings than I was right now.

As promised, when the next town came up, we pulled off the freeway and drove around until we found a little restaurant.

"So Lucas, Maya how did you two sleep?" Zay said into the previous quiet state. We all looked up from our menus to look at Zay. Maya looked mildly confused at the random question, but I knew what this was about. Zay's suspicious smirk said it all. I kicked him under the table, twisting my face to let him know this wasn't funny. I did not want Maya knowing what happened between us; nothing actually 'happened,' but she didn't need to know regardless.

"I slept fine. I feel bad for Lucas though, I'm a little bit of a bed hog," Maya laughed, bringing her attention back to the menu in front of her.

"I'm sure Lucas didn't mind," he directed more at me. My expression didn't change from the one of annoyance I wore.

"Josh always hated it," she whispered, not bringing her eyes up. My breath hitched at the mention of Josh's name. I don't think it was noticeable to Maya, but I quickly composed myself, just like I always did when I internally reacted badly to the mention of Josh's name.

"I bet you were kind of a cuddle bug huh?" Zay obnoxiously asked, still smirking.

"Zay! What do you think you're going to order?" I shouted. Not a very smooth topic change, I know, but I just wanted him to talk about literally anything else.

I didn't know if he was going to go along with the change in topic. Luckily, I didn't get the chance to find out because right after I spoke, the waiter came over. We all put in our order and after handing our menus back to the restaurant worker, Farkle started muttering his concerns about tonight to the rest of us. I got fiercely involved in the therapy session, pulling Maya and Zay in too; anything to avoid Zay making more little jabs and hints at Maya about this morning.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom," Maya announced at the end of the meal. I managed to avoid letting Zay make hints at Maya about the night before. But I owe Farkle for being so nervous about Riley, he took a lot of the discussion into his hands. "I'll be right back and then we can go." Maya pushed her chair back and made her way across the restaurant to the bathroom.

I looked over at Farkle. "Farks everything will go fine tonight."

"What if something goes wrong? There is at least a 50% probability that something will go wrong," he asked. The anxiety that ran ramped in his eyes was impossible to miss. A big portion of his life was leading up to this moment, it was only right that he was scared. I wished there was something, anything, I could say to help him calm down. I don't think there was much I could say though.

"You're going to tell the girl you love how you feel…your best friend. What could go wrong?" Those were the words I went with.

"Maybe you should follow your own advice," Zay murmured. I'm not sure if Farkle and I were even meant to hear his statement, but we both did hear it.

"What does that mean?" Farkle wondered. The last thing Farkle needed was to know that I was being a hypocrite with my own advice.

"Nothing Farkle it doesn't mean anything," I said through gritted teeth. My eyes were glaring at Zay. How could he bring this up right now around Farkle, who already had enough on his plate? Farkle looked between me and Zay, searching for an explanation. There was obviously something we were hiding from the boy and he knew it. "Zay's just being an ass."

"How am I being an ass?" Zay asked, seemingly genuinely confused by my insult.

"You don't need to bring this up again! You're just being a jerk!" I didn't want to cause a scene, but Zay was literally pushing all my buttons. It seemed like he was doing it on purpose, too.

"I'm trying to be your best friend. And Maya-"

"Don't Zay!" I could feel heat rising inside my core and I looked down to see my hands already balling up into tight fists.

"What about Maya?" Farkle butted in. I saw Zay open his mouth to speak, so I cut him off quick.

"Maya has nothing to do with this!"

"Maya has everything to do with this," Zay was quick to throw in. My words got all jumbled in my mouth and I couldn't speak. The waiter quickly came over and cleared our table of the dishes, sliding the check over to us. Neither Zay or I looked up at the waiter as he stood next to the table, gathering empty dishes and glasses. I'm not sure if he could sense the angry energy that surrounded us. "Why don't you tell Farkle and me why you invited Maya on this trip Lucas?" Zay accused after the waiter walked away. I didn't say anything. I tried to swallow down the curse words that worked their way into my mind and wanted desperately to come out of my mouth.

"Because she's our friend right?" Farkle's small voice wondered. I nodded quickly.

"Yes thank you Farkle," I said determined.

"The real reason Lucas! You have to admit it to yourself as much as you have to admit it to us!" Zay continued.

As much as I tried, I couldn't swallow down my anger. It was too much. It bubbled up over the top of my chest and suffocated me. Before I knew it, I was almost yelling with my dagger eyes pointing directly at Zay. "Zay just stop! Whatever you think about me and Maya you are wrong! And you are being so god-damn annoying questioning that every 2 seconds! It's not just on this trip either, it's been 4 years and I'm tired of it. You want to know the real reason I invited Maya on this trip? I felt bad for her alright!" It was the biggest lie. But I couldn't stop yelling. Whatever it was inside of me just wanted Zay to stop giving me grief about Maya and my feelings for her. "She got dumped and I felt bad leaving her at home to wallow in self-pity!" I wanted to take it back right away. A little pinging in my stomach told me that that was too much, even if I was just talking to Zay. I opened my mouth to speak, but stopped when I heard a little sound of throat clearing behind me. Zay and Farkle both looked above my head with their mouths dropped open. I knew what they were staring at without even looking back. When I did look back, I saw her. "Maya I-"

Her blonde hair flipped around as she turned to stalk out the front door. Not a second of time was wasted before I jumped from my seat and followed her out of the small restaurant.

"Maya! Hold on you have to-"

"You felt bad for me Lucas? Are you kidding me!?" she shouted. People outside of the restaurant had their eyes on us as we fought. Maya didn't seem to care. I stood almost 10 feet away from her but I could still see the hurt in her eyes. I knew it was my words that did it, and that made my heart drop about 100 feet.

"Maya I didn't mean it alright?" I pleaded.

"You know what Lucas if you didn't actually want me here then why the hell did you invite me?"

"Maya I've spent every second of this trip trying to cheer you up and all you've doing is mope around!" I shouted back.

I didn't know where my anger towards Maya was coming from. I thought maybe I buried it deep down, even underneath my feelings for her. I was angry she put up with Josh for so long. I was angry that she spent this whole trip feeling sorry over him when he wasn't worth it. I hated the feeling I had right now; this version of me, the angry one, it was hard to stop sometimes. I really couldn't let it go. Maya's blue eyes looked like they would well up with tears any second, like she was fighting this feeling of grief.

"Oh you know what? I'm sorry I'm so 'self-pitying' Lucas! I'm sorry that's such an inconvenience to you!" she said, using my own horrible words against me.

"Jesus Christ Maya will you listen to me for one second!" I shouted with a harshness to my voice. Maya jumped a little at my tone, but quickly stood her ground again. "I did not-"

Maya's hand shot up to stop my words. Her voice made its way out to fill the space between us. "No! I do not need or want your pity, Lucas," her voice cracked.

"Maybe if you weren't such a brat I wouldn't have to pity you…," I said. My voice trailed off at the end, knowing how insensitive, not to mention untrue, that statement was. Once again my anger had gotten the better of me.

The worst, most heart-broken look appeared in Maya's eyes. "Fine Lucas. Then next time don't invite me on your stupid trip." She turned around to stomp back to the car. She didn't have the keys so she leaned her back on it and waited for Farkle and Zay to come out. Even though her back was to me, I could see her arm lift to wipe what I know was a tear from falling out of her eye.

I hadn't even moved from my spot when Zay and Farkle came out of the restaurant. Their steps were small and careful. Their minds were probably filled with doubt about whether or not this was a good time to come out.

"I know now might not be the best time," Farkle said carefully, walking up next to me, "but we have to get back on the road." I nodded my head. Zay had already walked over to the car to talk to Maya. I wasn't worried. After the fight we just had, I knew he wouldn't bring up my feelings to her right now. He probably just wanted to make sure she was alright. I wanted to do the same, but the anger still flowed in me and I didn't want to take the chance of exploded at her again. "Do you want to drive? It might help you calm down a bit?" Farkle asked, extending the keys out to me.

"Yeah. Thanks Farkle," I said, taking the keys. Maybe that would give me something else to focus on. Just looking out at the road and focusing on driving. Once I calm down, I can try talking to Maya again.

I was surprised when Maya crawled into the front seat with me, instead of getting in the back seat. I glanced at her, but she didn't look at me. Instead, she stared ahead out the windshield, her arms crossed across her chest in her anger. My eyes went to Zay, who was making himself comfortable in the backseat with Farkle.

"All the tension goes to the same row," he said plainly. Typical Zay. He was also probably still a little pissed at me for yelling at him earlier too in the restaurant. I didn't fight it. I just wanted this trip to be over. A trip that started so good was now coming to an end with multiple fights. I felt bad Riley would have to see us all like this tonight. Mostly I felt bad for Farkle. I don't think he believes in signs, but if he did, he would probably take this as a huge omen and make us turn around and go home. It was the last day of the trip and everyone was fighting.

Starting the car, I pulled out of the parking lot, following the directions I had pulled up on my phone. No one in the car spoke. As planned, I focused on the road to distract myself from everything that was threatening to plague my mind. Everyone else in the car settled for being on their phones, Farkle choosing to watch a movie on his tablet. I'll admit, I drove a little over the speed limit, trying to get to Riley's sooner rather than later. But all of that came to a stop when there was apparently a huge accident on the freeway and we were looking at a delay lasting at least a couple hours.

We wouldn't be getting to Riley's anytime soon, Maya refused to even look at me, I was angry at just about everyone in the car and couldn't seem to ditch the anger, and now we were all forced to be in this car with each other for longer than expected. Great…

 **A/N: How was that? Did you guys like it?!**

 **The next chapter is one of my personal favorites in the story and has some more angst plus some major lucaya cuteness. I'll get it up soon! Thanks for reading loves!**


	10. First Aid

**A/N: And cue Lucaya cuteness, another rom-com cliché scene, and some angsty drama!**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 10: "First Aid"

We should have been to Riley's by sunset. But now it was already dark and we still hadn't crossed the border into California yet. The directions had taken us down into Arizona desert area. There weren't many other cars on the road, but it wasn't too late and we all had a good amount of cell battery left and plenty of gas. We weren't too freaked out.

We were, however, freaked out by what this car ride had become. Maya and I could barely even look at each other. My hope that driving would give me a chance to calm down and release some of my anger was ruined. Just the opposite happened as I was left with only my own thoughts. I stewed in my anger, surrounded by people I knew were mad at me.

I became angrier with Zay. He was intentionally stirring the pot, pushing me day in and day out to admit to Maya what he knew I wasn't ready to admit. He chose now of all times to really push me on it. Right now we already had so many things on our minds, it was insane to me that he thought right now would be a good time.

I became angrier at Farkle. I didn't even know I was angry at him until we were sitting in hours of traffic earlier in the day. This was it for him, he was going to tell Riley about his feelings. I was bitter and jealous that he had the guts to do it and I didn't have the guts to tell Maya.

I became far angrier at Maya. After all this time, after all the years we had been friends, she took what I said in anger to heart. The years we had spent coming to each other for help and advice and comfort felt wasted. I came to her about my anger issues before, she knew more about them than anyone, except Zay probably. She knew I often had trouble controlling my anger and that I said untrue things out of said anger. It was weird, Maya was usually the person to calm me down, not rile me up until I was angrier. But seeing her react like that, like she believed every word I said without a second thought, that hurt.

Maybe it was unfair to be mad at Maya, but I couldn't help how I feel. Each time the thought popped into my head to speak up and apologize to Maya, I couldn't help but feel that anger creep back up. I decided to just stay quiet; Zay didn't have that same thought.

While driving through the dark desert, Zay's voice broke the quiet atmosphere. "Maya?"

I was stunned that even took any opportunity at all to speak, but more stunned that he directed his voice at Maya. Maya took a tiny peek over her shoulder in Zay's direction then turned her attention back out the window. "Yeah Zay?"

"Lucas didn't mean what he said back there at the restaurant," he pleaded. The girl next to me buried her head in her hands and I wished I could do the same.

"Zay stay out of it," I said, trying to keep my voice calm.

"What? You don't want him lying for you?" Maya spat in my direction. This was what I was afraid of.

I felt my voice raise a little with my next words as they came out of my mouth. "Maya you know I didn't mean it! Stop being a brat!"

"Will you stop calling me that!?"

"Then stop being one!" My eyes glared at her. But hers glared at me right back. It was out of hand but it's like neither of us could stop.

Maya and I didn't fight too much. We understood each other too much to fight. There were times we disagreed, of course, but it never escalated to where this was. I never wanted to let my anger get out of hand with Maya. She was my comfort.

We kept screaming, our voices getting louder and louder with each jab we threw back at one another. Zay and Farkle didn't say anything from the backseat. Personally, I forgot they were even there after a little while of yelling back and forth with the other blonde in the car. If the two of them were smart, they were probably pretending they were anywhere else but here right about now.

"So this friendship just means nothing to you?"

"Lucas why the hell would you say that to me! Of course this friendship means something to me!" Maya yelled, turning her whole body towards me. I could see the angry lines crinkling her forehead. Her hands moved around wildly as she talked. That's how you know she's really angry. Her hands moved around with each word like that sometimes when she would vent about Josh. I never really thought she would do it while she talked about me. "You're the one acting like I don't mean anything to you!"

I heard Zay's little knowing scoff in the backseat. Maya seemed to miss it, while she was too wrapped up in her own fury. A small silence filled the car as we both stewed in irritation. I hoped this was it, the end of the argument. I didn't want to be yelled at by Maya anymore; but more than anything, I didn't want to yell at her anymore.

I could see it in her face and the way her eyes would blink a few times in a row, as if fighting emotion from pouring over the brim of her blue orbs. I could see her get a little more hurt with each sentence that left my mouth. As much as I didn't want to, I blamed Zay. If he had just not said anything back at the restaurant, I wouldn't have lost it and blown up. I wouldn't have gotten angry at Maya. Even if I did, I would've been able to walk it off, and she would have known to let me.

But no. We were here at this point. And as much as I hoped this would be the end of the argument, it continued.

"I ruined your dumb trip Lucas! You shouldn't have invited me!" I noticed her voice lower in volume as she kept talking. I gazed over at her. Her vision dropped to her hands fiddling in her lap. The anger in her eyes mixed almost evenly now with the sadness she had in her. "I ruined it like I ruin everything," she said in a whisper.

"Maya what the hell are you-"

"Lucas!" Zay's voice cut me off. I was forced to look away from the sad girl next to me and back out to the road.

"Shit!"

My hands quickly turned the steering wheel to the left as I caught sight of a coyote in the view of the headlights. The car swerved off the road and onto the side of the dirt covered street. Loud screams were heard throughout the car as everyone was caught off guard. After rumbling through the rock and dirt of the road, the car came to a screeching halt, throwing us all forward. I could barely feel my hands as they clutched the steering wheel so hard they turned white. The car sat just off of the road, dust still flying around everywhere, the coyote who caused the accident nowhere in sight.

My chest felt heavy, not that I was hurt or in any kind of pain. But I breathed hard in and out thinking about how bad this could have been. We cut all across the road when I turned the car and we could have been hit by another car if they had been coming the opposite direction. Or someone could have been seriously hurt if they weren't wearing their seatbelts. Those horrid visions of those worst-case scenarios had to be pushed out of my head. I took quick second long glances at everyone in the car to let it sink in that we were all ok.

"Is everyone alright?" Zay asked with caution. His heartbeat was no doubt beating as fast as mine was. No doubt all of our hearts were. We all nodded our heads and little "huh huh"s were heard from everyone. The engine revved as I turned the key in the ignition.

"The car's not starting," I announced. This was the last thing we needed. We were all in a little bit of shock from the accident. It all happened so quick it was like I blinked and suddenly we were in a ditch.

"Maya you're bleeding!" Farkle yelled. Every vein and bone I had in me was suddenly on high alert. My neck nearly was thrown out by how quick I turned to look at Maya. Her own hand reached up to touch her forehead. Her fingers stained with blood when she brought them away from the cut on the side of her forehead. She looked at the blood, appearing stunned, like she didn't even realize she was bleeding until Farkle told her she was. I had heard that could happen while you're in shock.

I unbuckled my seat belt and leaned closer to her. My hands clutched her cheek so I could turn her face and see her cut better. Our eyes suddenly met and I was surprised I couldn't read her emotion. I wondered if she could read my emotion. Truthfully I couldn't even tell what I was feeling. If I know one thing, it's that I wasn't angry anymore. This would not be the scenario I would choose to get rid of my anger, but I'm glad it was gone.

My focus on Maya was short lived as Farkle spoke to both Maya and I. "There's a first-aid kit in the trunk!" He didn't wait for a reply before exiting the car and going around to the trunk. In the short time that he was gone, Zay excused himself to go look under the hood of the car and try to get it fixed. My eyes didn't leave Maya. I didn't notice that her hand had clutched mine until Farkle came back with the first-aid kit. "I'm going to help Zay look at the engine. You help Maya," he spoke to me, handing me the medical kit.

Moving my hands to open the first aid kit, I noticed my right hand was trapped. Maya's hand was clutching it tight. Her eyes stared straight ahead as if she was completely removed from the situation.

"Maya?" I asked, squeezing her hand a little to let her know I was here. She didn't say anything back. She barely even moved. I could tell she was in shock. The accident wasn't that bad, in fact it was barely an accident at all. Maybe the blood line that was trickling down her forehead made it all feel worse than it really was to her. My body turned to face her. "Maya you have to calm down! You're ok," I soothed. My free hand reached up to push her hair out of face, clearing my view so I could see her wide blue eyes. Finally she turned her head to me. "Everybody's ok."

She just nodded, releasing her grip on my hand. Once it was released, I reached inside the medical kit and pulled out the supplies I figured I would need to patch up the cut on her head. It wasn't too bad, I had a little experience with cuts and bruises since I used to work on my Pappy Joe's ranch and with the sports I play. But Maya was visually freaking out and I needed to treat this minor injury with care.

"I'm sorry," Maya's small voice said. I looked up in confusion. It was more of a Riley thing to apologize for getting hurt.

"You don't have to apologize for getting hurt," I laughed. Her facial expression remained serious and I suddenly knew what she was really apologizing for.

"Lucas please just let me say this-" Maya breathed out as I applied the antiseptic wipe to her head to clean off the now drying blood.

"No Maya I'm going to say something first," I cut her off. "Maya I didn't mean anything I said back there and I should have never said it. Me and Zay were arguing and… I don't know… I just lost it. He just keeps bringing it up. And by the time-"

"What does that have to do with me?" Maya asked. I applied a disinfected cream to a cotton ball to apply to her cut carefully.

"Nothing," I lied as she winced at her cut stinging a little bit.

Her head rested in my hand while I cupped her cheek. Her skin was so warm in my hand, and as selfish as it seemed, I kept the disinfectant on her cut a little longer than necessary just to keep her cheek in that spot for a few more seconds.

"Nothing you just came up for a second," I kept the lie going. "And that just happened to be the moment I cracked."

Her sad eyes softened a bit and her breathing evened out. "You've never yelled at me like that before…"

"And I never wanted to yell at you like that!"

"It's ok," she assured me. But I wouldn't let her try to make this alright when it wasn't. It's my own fault that I let my anger get out of hand sometimes. Maya didn't deserve the things I said or the fight that ensued after.

"No it's not." I threw down the bandage I was about to put over her head and looked at her. She didn't know what to expect, I could tell. "It's not ok that I yelled at you or said what I said. It's not ok that I called you a brat or did anything to make you think I don't care about you!" To my surprise, a tiny smile appeared on Maya's lips. It was barely noticeable but I saw it. A tiny hand that I knew belonged to her landed on my knee.

"I have been being kind of a brat lately. You were so nice to invite me on this trip so I wouldn't have to be home and be sad about Josh. And what do I do? I text Josh or call him or sit here and let myself think about him," she said. My fingers traced little lines on her arm. Goosebumps popped up everywhere on her arm as my skin touched hers. But our eyes weren't affected. The green of my eyes met the blue of hers as she tried to apologize for her recent sadness.

"That doesn't make you a brat."

"Maybe not a brat. But I could have tried a lot harder to not think about Josh," she admitted. She was being so open and honest with me. It felt like we were back in my room, on my floor, just talking. It was like she had just crawled through my window without warning and took all my time and attention. Always, I couldn't help but wonder if she was this open with anyone else. Probably Riley; I knew that. But mostly I wondered about Josh, if their conversations were ever as important and honest and deep as ours were sometimes.

"You're not the one who deserves to be sad right now," I muttered. As my words came out my eye contact with the pretty blonde faded away. It shifted to the band aid I held in my hand, the band aid I had yet to put on her head.

"What does that mean?" a curious Maya asked.

"Josh should be the one who's upset," I said honestly. I chose my next words very carefully. "I would be upset if I lost you."

"I don't think I'm the girl guys get sad over," she said, pushing a chuck of blonde hair behind her ear. It fell right back out so I reached my hand over and softly pushed it back behind her ear. My hand stayed in that place for a minute, my thumb stroking the side of her soft hair. She looked back up at me.

"Trust me… you are," I remarked. If anyone knew this fact, it was me. She personally made me happy on so many occasions. But the thought of not being able to be with her or actually call her mine, that made me sad.

"Really?" she smiled at me.

It was crazy to me how she didn't see what she was worth after all this time. I blamed a lot of it on Josh. He was her boyfriend for 3 years but he never really did many things to show her how amazing she was.

"Of course you are," I reassured her. My hand dropped from her face and back into my lap. It was becoming extra hard lately to not lean over and kiss her.

"I really am sorry for being a grump," she laughed.

"I'm sorry for saying what I said," I said. I felt like I couldn't say that enough. The fact that none of it was true made what I said even worse.

A playful punch from Maya's fist hit my arm and a tiny laugh escaped her lips. "Yeah well you should be!" she insisted playfully. A laugh from my lips soon followed. This was the Maya I knew. Not the sad, quiet Maya I had seen the past couple days. I wanted to soak this up; this Maya needed to stick around, but with Josh just a phone call or text away, I wasn't sure how long she would be here.

"I promise Shortstack, no more saying things about you that I don't mean." And I meant it. I had to control my anger. With everyone I tried not to get too angry, but with Maya it was different, she was the one person in the world I was genuinely terrified of hurting with my anger. Maya's fingers entangled loosely in mine as she smiled back at me.

"And I promise I will try my very hardest to not mope about Josh for the rest of this trip. Deal?" Her fingers left mine and instead she popped her pinky up in front of me. Without a thought, I let my pinky wrap around hers.

"Deal."

A slight gaze came over her eyes as she looked at me with an emotion I couldn't place. Her cut caught my eye. If Farkle and Zay came back in and noticed she still didn't have a band aid on her head, they would sure want to know what was taking us so long and what we were talking about. I peeled the back off the band aid and stuck it carefully to Maya's forehead, covering the red cut.

"So? Do you think I'll live?" she teased with a small voice.

"Yeah I think you'll be fine."

Hovering close to her, I didn't dare move back away. We never had a problem being this close. Sure, it always drove me crazy, wishing I could close the distance and kiss her lips but I could always play it off and make the moment casual.

But this moment now was charged with tension from both sides. I was crazy for thinking it, but it felt like she was fighting the same urge as me. When seconds disappeared, I thought about just doing it.

The thought was forced out of my head with a hard kick when Maya shook her head, taking her eyes off me. Those same eyes seemed to start looking just about anywhere at wasn't my eyes.

"Um maybe you should… um, go help Farkle and Zay fix the car," she stammered. She turned her body back around, smoothing down the band aid on her head.

"Yeah. Yeah alright," I closed the first aid kit and put it on the floor of the backseat. "Just stay in the car ok?" With one last glance at her I got out and joined the boys under the hood of the car.

I was stupid to think that whatever just happened between us meant anything. I was just Lucas. I was her best friend, that's all I was. Back in junior high and freshman year, I could've been more. I could've been that guy who got Maya. But I blew it then. I didn't know it at the time but that was my chance and I blew it.

"Here I think the caps a little loose. And the oil pipe burst," I commented as we hovered over the engine. I only knew a little about cars. Zay knew just as much as I did and honestly it would've surprised me if Farkle knew much at all about cars besides how to drive one.

"So do we call a tow truck?" Farkle wondered.

"No that will take too long. And it's too sketchy on this road," Zay put in. He was right. We all looked around at the dark desert area. I couldn't help but have flashbacks to when Maya made me watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre. _"Come one Huckleberry! It's a movie about your native land."_ It was her way of trying to get me into the Halloween spirit. Of course, she ended up spending more than half the movie hiding her face in my shoulder and trying to make Texas jokes throughout the movie to make it seem less scary. This deserted desert road looked a little too much like the deserted desert road in the movie.

"Yeah and we wouldn't even know where to tell them we are!" I mentioned.

"We could give them latitude and longitude coordinates!" Farkle suggested. I didn't know if he wanted to just get to Riley as quick as possible or if he had seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre too. I'm sure it was a bit of both.

"Do you even know how tow-trucks work Farks?" Zay teased.

"I'm from New York!" He had a point there. Not much use for tow-trucks when you can ride the subway or take a taxi anywhere.

"Look maybe we don't even need a tow-truck. Maybe we can just fix it?" Zay suggested. He turned to look at me like I would have all the answers. "Any ideas Lucas?" I tried to think back to working on the ranch and what we would do when the tractors broke down.

"This is a temporary fix and we have to take the car into a mechanic when we get to Riley's. But I have an idea," I said. I directed Zay and Farkle to get me a couple tools from the car that I knew I would need for my temporary fix.

It didn't take long for us to finally get the car started. But we didn't know how long this fix would work. We agreed that while Farkle talked to Riley we would take the car into a mechanic before starting our drive back to New York. Already hours off from our schedule, we decided that if we kept going now, it would be far too late by the time we got to Riley's anyway. Knowing Riley, she wouldn't even be up that late. Not to mention after our little accident we were all exhausted and none of us trusted that we could make it that far without someone falling asleep at the wheel.

Once we were pretty close to the California border and just a few hours away from Riley's, we found a hotel. Luckily, they had a room available to fit us all. We gladly took it, ready to rest for the night.

 **A/N: Good? Bad? How you feel about this chapter?! Tell me how you feel about it!**

 **Next chapter… all I'll say is you will both LOVE it and HATE it;) Major Lucaya though so look forward to that lol Love you guys!**

 **All your sweet reviews keep me going you guys, you have no idea.**


	11. Wet Lips

**A/N: Get ready…. This chapter is gooooood;)**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 11: "Wet Lips"

As tired as we were by the time we got to the hotel, it seemed we were too wired to sleep. Farkle flipped through the channels on the TV. He wasn't even paying attention to what was on each channel, he was just flipping through them. Zay laid on the bed, looking through his phone. Both of them remained quiet.

Maya excused herself just minutes after we entered the hotel room. She insisted she needed air and to cool off outside, rather than being stuck in the hotel room. I asked her if she wanted me to go with her. Even though this was a very nice hotel, I didn't want her walking around all by herself. She denied me the chance to go with her. She needed to be alone; her words, not mine. So I let her go off, out the door. I sat down on the bed and asked Farkle if I could borrow his tablet to watch a movie. I had many things I needed to take my mind off of.

Not even being able to focus on the movie I was watching, I turned it off less than half way through. Maybe Maya was onto something with wanting to be out of the hotel room. The air would do me good, and hopefully make me tired enough to want to go to sleep. I wasn't really as adamant about this trip being over as I was before Maya and I made up in the car. But there was just such pressure on this trip. Once we got home, everything might go back to normal. My feelings wouldn't be so overwhelming.

"I'm going on a walk," I announced, getting up from the bed and walking towards the door. I looked at Zay as I reached for the door handle. I expected some comment asking if I was going to look for Maya. He just nodded his head in my direction, then sent his attention back to his phone. Farkle's blinking expression made it clear to me he was nearing sleep and didn't care where I went at the moment.

The hotel had a nice courtyard surrounding most of it with plants and trees. The air was cool with a slight breeze blowing, but you didn't even need a jacket. I wished I was in Texas. Everything had a way of seeming simpler in Texas. My thoughts wouldn't be so daunting and I could sort everything out in my head clearly.

The path of the courtyard led me right past the pool. With just a quick glance, I was able to spot a wave of long blonde hair. A closer look let me see that it was Maya sitting on the edge of the blue water, with her feet inside. I wandered over to her.

"What are you doing sitting here all by yourself?" I asked. She jumped as I startled her a little bit, but she grinned at my sight nonetheless. Taking off my shoes, I stuck my feet in the pool next to hers.

"I guess I just have a lot on my mind," she answered, scooting a little closer to me.

"Josh?" I asked, a little blue to think about her still thinking about him. I shouldn't be surprised, they dated for years. Surprise took over me when she shook her head in answer to my question.

"No. Not about Josh."

"Maya?" I was quick to doubt that Josh wasn't on her mind. She laughed, proving that Josh was on her mind. I knew her a little better than she wanted to give me credit for. She displayed a tiny increment of space between her fingers that could barely see thru.

"Maybe like this much," she laughed. "But I promise it's not just him. It's- it's a bunch of stuff," her small voice spoke. Looks like we were on the same page. "I don't know why I can't stop thinking about him."

I watched as she buried her head in her hands, upset with herself. "Maya you guys did date for 3 years. And you liked him for years before that." I tried my best to offer up comfort. It's what I always did; I pushed down my own feelings to help her with whatever feelings she had weighing on her.

"It just sucks," she pouted. She rose from her spot on the pool ledge. After a moment of hatching a plan, I rose too.

"I bet I could cheer you up." My eyes shifted between her and the pool next to us. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she caught onto my plan.

"Lucas don't!"

I stepped closer and closer slowly. My eyes on her as I smirked, my eyes touching the gleam of the water every other second.

"Lucas I'm serious," Maya pleaded.

It was too late as I scooped the tiny girl up in my arms and leaped into the pool. I floated to the top, taking in a breath. Everything should have been fine, Maya should be laughing and smiling. But instead, she flapped around in the water, her arms flailing. Under the water we had drifted a bit. She was a few feet from me now, but she couldn't stay above water for long. Her body kept sinking back under the waves she created. Feeling like an idiot, I swam over to her and wrapped my arm around her waist. While I pulled her over to the edge of the pool, she wrapped her legs around my waist and her shaking arms around my neck. Little coughs and even little spurts of water escaped her mouth as she caught her breath.

"You can't swim?!" I shouted as I leaned her back against the edge of the pool. I pushed some of the wet hair out of her eyes while stuck to her face. The grip her legs had around my waist tightened, but I was tall enough that my feet touched the bottom of the pool and I could steady us against the ledge.

"I live in New York Lucas! There's not exactly a variety of places to swim!" she argued. She assisted me in pushing the hair from her face, but one of her arms stayed latched around my neck.

"Well you never said anything!"

"It never exactly came up! And who just throws another person into a pool?" she complained. It was an understandable question. But nothing had ever made it even a little evident that she didn't know how to swim. But she had a point when she mentioned New York didn't exactly have a large variety of opportunities for swimming. Growing up in Texas, we swam in the lake nearly every weekend.

I thought she would be reaching for the ledge by now, ready to get out. But she didn't. Her arms stayed tightly wrapped around my neck, her pressed up against me. Under the surface of the water, I let my thumbs stroke her sides in comfort.

"Are you ok?" I asked in a whisper.

"Yeah I'm fine," Maya said, without much emotion.

"I'm serious Maya. Are you really ok?" She had been through so much. Not just today either; but in her whole life, in the past few years, in the past few days. She tried to stay strong a lot, not much got to her. But our honest relationship was something I was proud of. It was part of the reason that I didn't want to fess up about my true feelings for her, I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize that honest and open relationship we had built. I needed her to be honest with me in this moment, even if it led to another Josh-themed talk. Her blue eyes stared at me. My guess is that she was trying to decide if she really wanted to be so vulnerable right now.

"He broke my heart," said her tiny, sad voice. She was hurting.

"Can I tell you a secret?" I pushed her hair behind her ear, her head nodding in response. "Josh wasn't good enough for you. He was never good enough for you."

Her big eyes gazed up at me as if I had just confessed my secret love for her. She seemed conflicted, like she almost didn't believe what I had said. I had never said those words to her before, even though I thought it all the time.

"You mean that?" It was barely a whisper coming out of her mouth.

I couldn't find words. It was like all the words I had gathered for this moment suddenly became lost. My thumb stroked her wet cheek and I was unable to focus on anything but her; her in this one moment. Managing a nod, I didn't even notice the space between our faces closing. While trying to figure out if it was her moving closer to me or me moving closer to her, I realized it was both. Both of our bodies were pressed together tight, no more space left to close as our arms held tight around each other. My eyes made their way down to her lips, then back to her eyes; the pattern continued as the space kept threatening to close. Her lips barely grazed mine, any second they would be connected.

"Hey you kids can't be in there!" a man's voice rang out. The space in between our faces returned. We both shot our heads up and darted our eyes to spot a man by the pool gate. He was old, wearing a grey jumpsuit. I guessed he was a maintenance worker at the hotel. Maya held her gaze with him longer than I did. I looked at her, trying to read an emotion or reaction to what almost just happened. Our bodies were no longer heavily pressed against each other and her once tight grip around my waist with her legs loosened.

"Sorry!" she shouted, but not very loudly. I don't even think the man heard her. She refused to look at me. Her eyes glanced around the pool and back at the man. Her arms left my neck and she grabbed onto the concrete ledge behind her. Hoisting herself up, she lifted herself out of the pool. Without even a look back at me, she walked dripping wet back in the direction of our room.

Alone in the pool, I stared off in her direction. What even just happened? I was less than a second away from kissing Maya. Maya was less than a second away from kissing me. If I had to take a guess based off her reaction after we were interrupted, I would say she regretted it.

"Son? You alright?" the maintenance man asked. I didn't even look at him. I wanted to sink under the calm water and stay there. Why did I have to say anything? A heavy feeling settled in my chest that made me feel like I might sink. My mind couldn't process anything. Breath had trouble finding its way into my lungs. I could barely feel the cold air blow past my wet body. Finally I lifted myself out of the pool and began the walk back to the room. Each step felt heavy and my hands shook, but not from how cold I was.

I walked into the hotel room with caution, afraid to face Maya. I was afraid to face rejection from her. She was nowhere in sight. Zay was on the bed, eating a bag of chips. Farkle laid next to him seemingly fast asleep. Zay's eyes came directly to me. I didn't know what he knew, but I didn't want to talk about any of it. I didn't want to think about any of it.

"Where's Maya?" I asked with no tone or distinguishable expression.

"She went to take a shower," Zay answered, finishing his chips. "Do I want to know why both of you are soaking wet?"

Yeah, he had a right to ask. It was curious, especially since we came back to the room separately. And if Maya entered the room as quiet and awkward as she left the pool, it would be easy to assume something happened. But I wish I knew what happened.

"I need you to do me a favor," I said, ignoring Zay's question. It's not like I had an answer to it anyway.

"After the fight I caused between you and Maya, I'll do any favor you want me to," he said, climbing out of the bed and walking over to me. I started to strip off my wet clothes and dry off with one of the spare towels kept in the cabinet by the TV set. Zay and I hadn't yet discussed the incident that ensued at the restaurant. He hadn't given me grief about Maya since and he seemed genuinely sorry.

"I need you to sleep in the bed with Maya. I'll share with Farkle," I asked, changing out of my wet pants.

"Why can't you and Maya just share?"

"Zay!" I was not in the mood to argue. "You said you would do the favor and it's a simple favor. I just think Maya would think it's a little awkward to share a bed with me right now and I don't want her to have to feel like that," I said. Zay's face softened. I needed him to do this for me right now. The way Maya was acting made it clear that she would rather sleep on the floor than with me up in the bed. This was what I was afraid of; this was why I held my tongue for so long. Our relationship was already different. Never before was it weird for us to be in the same bed. But after this 'almost kiss' it was.

"Alright. I'll share with blondie. But if she tries to cuddle with me-" Zay's voice cut off when he noticed I wasn't amused by his attempt at a joke.

Once I was dried off and was in new, dry clothes, I curled up on the bed next to Farkle. Zay was already comfy in the opposite bed, waiting for Maya to come out from the bathroom. I could still hear the shower water running and couldn't stop myself from being worried about what she was feeling. I shut my eyes, refusing to think about any of this until the next morning when I had a chance to process it all. I take back my words from before, I was definitely ready for this trip to be over.

 **A/N: Do you guys hate me? Lol I promise you will love it later!**

 **We finally get to Riley's next chapter! Thank you so so so much for reading this story and keeping up with it even though I'm not being very consistent with updates! Please keep reviewing! I love hearing from you guys how you're liking everything I'm writing:)**


	12. Borrow the Words

**A/N: And we finally get to Riley's! Although we don't see Riley until the next chapter lol**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 12: "Borrow the Words"

"Alright this is it! Only an hour until we're at Riley's," Zay announced reading the navigation from Farkle's phone. It was about a 5 hour drive from the hotel we stayed at in Arizona to Riley's place. Farkle didn't let us sleep in much this morning, anxious to get back on the road. Now that we were so behind on time, we were forced to leave Riley's by tonight to head back home. Maya didn't fight it, as much of a non-morning person she was. She wanted to spend as much time with her best friend as she could. Farkle would eat up most of the time with the cheerful brunette, so it was important to her to get on the road as well and have her own girl time.

Zay fell asleep for the first couple hours of the car ride. Which, I'll be honest, was nice. After last night I was just waiting for when he would question me about what happened between Maya and I. He hadn't yet said a word, not even after he woke up.

He wasn't the only one not saying much.

Maya and I had not said one word about the almost kiss from the night before. In fact, we hadn't said many words to each other at all. An awkward 'good morning' when we woke up started the day, then a few 'excuse me''s and some small talk in the car. That was about it. I knew I didn't even know what to say. I didn't want to be the one to bring it up, not if it would make her uncomfortable or if she was still deciding how she felt about it. But it seemed as though Maya was actively trying to forget it even happened. I kept catching Zay's eyes when he turned around to gaze at the backseat. He was so curious, but he didn't know what to say either. Farkle was too busy freaking out over his own thing to be concerned with us blondes in the back, so I didn't have to worry about him. I wasn't even too concerned about Zay, as he kept his mouth closed for most of the time today. But being quiet about it for so long made him burst eventually.

"Ok what happened with you two last night?" he exploding just shortly after his announcement about the hour mark. Maya looked at me, as if asking what even did happen last night. I gave her a look saying I didn't know either. We were all equally as lost.

"Nothing happened Zay," I tried to answer, letting my eye sight fall from Maya's blue eyes out to the window.

Zay's sight turned to Maya. "Maya?"

"Exactly what he said Zay. Nothing happened," Maya answered. Zay didn't look convinced. If I'm telling the truth, I wasn't convinced. I mean we almost kissed for crying out loud! How can that be nothing? If Maya needed it to be nothing, at least for right now, then I would let it be nothing. Even though I was dying inside to finish what I started in that pool.

"Come on!" Zay shouted. "You both left to go on 'walks' and came back later soaking wet with stunned looks on your faces," he recapped. I wouldn't say it out loud, but my mind filled with thoughts about what Maya's face might have looked like when she walked back into the hotel room. "I'm not dumb you two, what happened?"

Wishing to find some possible answer in Maya, I glanced at her. She didn't notice. She was too busy giving Zay a wide-eyed look with the rest of her face blank. Searching for a possible way out of this, I folded my hands over my face.

"I tripped." Maya's words came out of nowhere. When I heard her voice, I thought she would admit to the almost kiss. That was until I processed her strange words.

"What?" Zay asked, his confusion matching mine.

"I was sitting over by the pool. I tripped and fell in. Lucas saw and he jumped in and saved me. That's it," she explained. She was always good at coming up with lies on the spot. I was never good at that. It's a good think Zay didn't turn his gaze to me because my confused face would have given away the lie immediately. "Isn't that what happened Lucas?" Her eyes were on me and, knowing Zay would follow in her lead, I corrected my own facial expression. I nodded, not making any sounds as I wasn't sure what the rest of her plan was. She was the one who was good at lying, I'll let her finish this off.

"He saved you? That's what happened?" Zay asked. It was obvious that he was still a little unsure of the answer we were giving him.

"You know I can't swim," Maya replied in an obvious tone.

"Wait you knew she can't swim?"

"Yeah?" Zay replied in an equally obvious tone. How did he know and I didn't? Zay and Maya are close, almost as close as Maya and I are. But if I didn't even know, how the hell did he know? I made a mental note to go back to that point with Zay later.

Zay shifted his eyes from me to Maya. I hoped, and I knew Maya shared in my hope, that Zay would just believe the lie and let the matter drop. I couldn't think about this anymore. I couldn't think about that fact that Maya wants nothing to do with even the thought that we almost kissed. I couldn't take the rejection.

Before Zay was able to accept or reject the lie, Farkle turned to us. "Guys I'm officially freaking out!" With only less than half an hour left on the road, it was about time he have an external freak out.

"Farkle don't worry everything will be fine!"

"Yeah Farks you gotta calm down!"

"You have nothing to worry about."

"This is a long-time coming."

Calming and supportive words came out of each of our mouths and made their way to Farkle's ears. When I noticed his face not relaxing in the least bit, I knew those words were probably going in one ear and out the other. We weren't on the freeway anymore and I could feel Farkle slowing the car down, driving even below the speed limit. He was not looking forward to this. After years and years of holding in his feelings and just being her best friend, he was a little disoriented at the idea of telling Riley he was actually pretty much in love with her. But that's just the thing: this was no longer the 'idea' of telling Riley, this was the reality of telling Riley. I knew exactly what that felt like and I sympathized with him greatly.

"Farks who knows Riley better than I do?" Maya asked.

"No one. You two are incomplete without the other," Farkle laughed. He turned the car down a little street, against what the navigation was telling him to do. My mouth stayed shut. I knew he wasn't quite ready to face Riley yet.

"Exactly!" Maya exclaimed, her hands landing comfortingly on Farkle's shoulder, rubbing tiny circles into it. "I'm a Riley expert. I promise you this will go great!"

"And if it doesn't go great? What then Maya?"

"Then I promise it won't go nearly as bad as you're thinking it will. Farks you have to calm down. She's your best friend, you should be able to tell her anything." Maya chirped.

I didn't know if that statement was a little pointed towards me. I'm not selfish. I know Maya is trying to help Farkle, that's who the statement and the thought was mainly directed at. But it felt so right for it to fit our situation, as well. Farkle didn't answer. Instead he settled for taking deep inhales and exhales, bordering on hyperventilating. After letting the navigation reroute about 5 times from taking little turns where he knew he shouldn't have or going straight ahead when he was instead supposed to turn, he pulled up to the curb. Outside the right side of the car was Riley's little apartment building. Farkle didn't look. His eyes seemed focused on the unusual spot of his hands tightly wound around the steering wheel. Zay did him the favor of reaching over to the key in the ignition. Farkle's hand stopped him, looking around anxious.

"We're going home," he announced simply.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. This is why Farkle brought us, to stop him from doing something he would regret out of fear. And right now, leaving before even getting his chance is what he would regret for the rest of his life.

"I can't do this! It was a stupid idea to think I could. Thank you guys for coming but we're going home." He tried to put the car back into drive, but Zay was too quick. He reached back over and pulled the key out of the ignition, successfully turning off the car. I was about to say something but Maya leaned forward first.

"Farkle! You will regret it if you don't go in there and talk to Riley!" she said, almost reading my thoughts. "One day when Riley gets married, do you want to be the one marrying her? Or do you want to be the one in the audience thinking about how that could've been you if you had just gone into that house right now?"

It was a good question. He thought he missed his chance, but after all we had been through, after this trip, I knew this was his chance. And he had a choice of whether or not Riley knew the truth.

"I don't even know what to say," Farkle cried.

This was my turn. "Farkle listen to me. You are going to go in there and look her in the eye and tell her how much she means to you. You tell her that your friendship means everything to you, but that these feelings you have for her, they're too real and too strong to ignore." I knew Zay and Maya were hanging on my every word like Farkle was. I knew Zay realized that all my words were just a tangled up speech that I would give to Maya if I could. It seemed I would never get to say these words to Maya, so Farkle could use them for Riley if he wanted. Maya sat next to me, and I wondered if she knew that I was saying everything I wished I could say to her. "You know you are better for her than any guy she's ever been with; any guy she will ever be with. You know that right? And you know her inside and out, better than a lot of other people know her. You would do anything to keep her safe or make her smile; you pretty much already do now. Whether or not she feels the same, tell her you are never going to stop loving her because what you feel for her, it's too real. And it's not going away any time soon."

"This is terrifying," Farkle shared, after taking in what I had to say. I refused to look at Maya and see her reaction to what I just said.

"I think love is supposed to be terrifying bud," Zay offered. His hand landed on Farkle's back as a comfort.

"Alright. Let's just do it before I change my mind," said the genius. Maya was quick to follow in his lead when he undid his seatbelt.

"Did you think we were really going to leave before I got a chance to see Pumpkin?" Maya chirped, quickly getting out of the car and meeting Farkle by his door.

Zay and I were a bit slower than those excited two, staying behind to lock up the car. I don't know why I didn't expect Zay to say something. He had held his tongue for the whole day, besides his little outburst in curiosity of last night. But even I give him a free pass for that; even I would have been overwhelmingly curious if I was in Zay's place on that one. Just as I was about to step up onto the curb, Zay's hand pulled my arm back.

"Can I just say one thing?" he asked.

Why not? "Yeah sure go ahead," I tried to make my voice sound as though I was not in the mood for this. What I definitely didn't want was another argument.

"Look I'm just going to say one thing and then I'll let it go. Farkle's laying everything out on the line right now. You sure you don't want to take your own advice right now?" I tried my very hardest to keep my face straight. Of course I wanted to take my own advice! But your own advice is always harder to take. Maya and I just had an almost kiss and she didn't even want to acknowledge it happened. It was normal to not want to tell Zay about it, when we didn't even know what it meant to either of us. But she wouldn't even acknowledge it to me. That wasn't exactly a green light to tell her that I wished we had kissed, just once would be enough. But I wanted to kiss her always, I wanted so much more than to kiss her.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied before stalking off towards Riley's front door. This lie was much easier, but it was getting harder to keep it going, especially when it felt like my feeling for Maya were about to make every one of my seams burst.

 **A/N: I hope you enjoyed! The next chapter is HUGE. We get to see Riley, there's an important conversation between Lucas and Zay, and major Lucaya moment… plus we find out what Josh did…**

 **So yeah next chapter is huge! We are coming to the end of this story soon so I'm sad about that. BUT I did just finish my asshole!Friar story so then I can start getting that posted! Love you guys!**

 **Remember to review!:)**


	13. Riles

**A/N: This chapter's a biggie! We finally find out what Josh did… Hope you like it!**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 13: "Riles"

"I still can't believe you're all here!" Riley's voice chirped over the faint sound of the TV in the background. She was stunned when she opened her front door to see the lot of us standing there. If I didn't know any better I would say she actually had a moment when she thought she was dreaming. Her wide-eyed freeze frame only lasted for about 10 seconds before we were all enveloped in her arms for a huge hug. She may have tiny arms, but that girl has a death grip when it comes to hugging.

Once we all received our own individual hugs, no surprise Maya's being the biggest, we were led into the living room. We took our seats on the couch and chairs that surrounded the small coffee table that already littered with text books even though school hadn't started yet. Riley's roommate, Megan, was there and we got to meet her but she left shortly after we arrived to go to work. I think we were all secretly a little glad. It was nice to just be alone with Riley and have time to just ourselves; we wouldn't be getting much of this once we left back to New York. Actually we wouldn't be getting any of it once Farkle and Zay left. It would just be Maya and I, normally I wouldn't mind. I would be happy to be getting time with her, but in our current state of things, I didn't know if this was a good thing.

"You guys can't understand how much I already miss you!" Riley expressed, her head leaning on Maya's shoulder. Luckily, Riley hadn't caught onto the odd air that sat around me and her blonde best friend; if she did notice, she was nice enough not to say anything. She did have a tiny temper tantrum towards Maya for keeping the "we're coming to give you a surprise visit" secret from her for the past few days. Even Zay was surprised that Maya was able to keep the secret. Maya claimed she knew seeing Riley's shocked expression when she opened the door to see them would be worth it.

"Trust me Pumpkin I miss you so much too," Maya said, leaning her own head on top of Riley's.

"But this is a nice place! You're roommate seems nice too!" Zay tried to make her feel better.

"Oh yeah Megan's real sweet! But she's no Peaches," Riley pouted. I knew it would be hard for both the girls with Riley all the way across the country, we all knew. They had been attached at the hip for more than 10 years. It would be so weird to see Maya with no Riley around for the next few months.

A couple hours went by without us taking much breath in between words. It was like nothing changed; almost like we were sitting in Topanga's back in New York, just talking. A moment of silence brought Farkle to the decision that now was the time to do what he came here to do. After what I expect was gather up every ounce of courage he had inside of him, he spoke up.

"Riley could I talk to you? Just the two of us?" All of us, except Riley obviously, knew what that meant. Zay and I gave each other a look of wonder. Should we excuse ourselves to another room? Or go outside?

"Um actually Farkle do you mind if I have a minute alone with Riley first?" Maya asked, a bit nervous. At first Farkle seemed caught off guard, surprised that Maya would take his moment. But then a small smile came to his face, knowing Maya and Riley needed a minute. He nodded and rose from his seat.

"I'll wait outside," he said. I was quick to follow in his lead, Zay behind me. On accident, Maya and I caught each other's eyes as I walked to the door. I don't know what it was but something told me she needed that moment with Riley to talk about something that had to do with me. I felt selfish just thinking about that. This was her best friend in the whole world, the one person she trusts and loves more than anyone and for some reason I was assuming she only wanted to talk to her because of me. I was losing it.

Us boys stepped outside onto the curb. It was the middle of September but it was still nice and warm outside. I leaned my back against the car, soaking in the sunlight on my face. Farkle had a determined look on his face and I was almost afraid to ask what it was about.

"You alright Farks?" Zay asked. The genius didn't move for a few seconds, just stared at one spot on the ground. His head moved up slowly to look and Zay and I, then he nodded.

"I'm going to take a walk around the neighborhood," he answered. Zay suddenly held his hand out to stop the boy.

"Woah you sure you're not going to jump on a bus back to New York the second you turn the corner?" Zay laughed. He was trying to lighten the mood with his joke, I knew, but deep down I think we were both a little worried Farkle would make a run for it. Even Farkle chuckled a little at the suggestion.

"I promise. I just need to clear my head. Gather my words," he revealed. We both nodded, letting him turn his back and begin his walk up the street.

As I stared off after Farkle, I could practically feel Zay burning a hole in the side of my head with his eyes. I didn't even turn my head to look at him before asking the question I already knew the answer to. "Why are staring at me Zay?"

"I know I said I would let it go but-"

"Then let it go," I interrupted. If there was ever a time I wasn't in the mood for this, it was now.

"You know what? No," he stood his ground. Something in his voice told me this wasn't going to end soon. Some odd little voice in my head told me to just let go of that wall and tell him the truth. Being stuck in my own head and not being able to get these feelings out was what was really driving me into a downward spiral.

"No? No what Zay?" I asked, not quite sure if I was ready to tell him or not.

"I'm so tired of you denying that you have feelings for that girl! You act like it's not the most obvious thing in the world! And even if it wasn't obvious for the past 6 years, which it was, you've made it actually painfully obvious over the past few days," he yelled. Seeing how frustrated he was getting about this now made it really hard to not just tell him. He wasn't just trying to be an annoying know-it-all, bragging about being able to see my crush from a mile away. This was my best friend caring about me and my feelings, these stupid feelings that I was stupidly trying to ignore. A blank stare went from my face to his, not knowing what to say to that. Inside, I felt the truth creep up into my throat. I fought to keep it from coming out of my mouth, but I could feel myself losing that fight. "Why the hell can't you just admit it?"

"Because it scares me!" I burst out. I found I couldn't hold it in anymore. But I also found that the second I let out my feelings, I felt a relief rush through my body. "It scares me. She scares me."

"How could she scare you?" Zay laughed.

"It's Maya."

"Good point," he admitted. Our smiles faded and Zay asked the question I'm sure has been on his mind for a while. "So how bad do you got it for her?"

My hand ran down my face. He couldn't even imagine how much love I had for that tiny girl. She was the only girl I could think about. "I think I'm in love with her, man." I had never said it out loud until now. It felt right to say it, like it was the truth. When I expected Zay's face to twist with surprise at my confession, he instead just smiled like his suspicions had finally been confirmed. "I don't even know what to do about it."

"Why don't you tell her?" he asked. It was a fair question. I think I ask myself that question every day.

"Zay, Maya is like my best friend. This friendship that we have, I wouldn't trade it for the world."

"You would trade it for a real relationship!" he fought back. He wanted to push me. And maybe I needed to be pushed. Maybe him pushing me to do this would be what actually gets me to confess to Maya. The actual thought of telling Maya kept making me feel sick though.

"That's assuming she feels the same way about me," I shot back.

"Lucas she most definitely feels the same way," Zay tried to convince me.

"You don't know that!"

My best friend's eyebrows arched up as if he was offended I didn't trust his words. "I'm not blind Lucas. If it's been 6 years of watching you drool over her, then it's been 6 years of watching the blonde beauty drool over you," he smirked. If me and Maya were different people, then his comment would mean something to me. But we had that kind of relationship that could be mistaken as flirting; granted I was actually flirting a lot of the time, but that's not the point. Our relationship could be easily misconstrued and I think Zay was just taking Maya's interactions with me the wrong way. Either that, or I just didn't want to take this false hope that Zay was giving me.

"I just can't tell her. I missed my chance," I said. "It's too late."

Zay's eyes narrowed on me and had a sharp sympathy to them. It was nice to know that at least whatever he was thinking, he was trying to understand where I was coming from.

"I don't believe it's too late. You and Maya… I've never seen you look at another girl like that, not even Riley. And I know you're scared to get hurt but this is worth it!"

"I'm not just scared for me, I'm scared for her!" I confessed. Zay's confused stare caused me to keep going on with my feelings. "She's gone through so much with Josh lately and now Riley's gone and you and Farkle are leaving, I'm the only one she really has. And if I tell her how I feel it could ruin everything and then she won't even have me. Or worse, she pretends to feel the same way just to keep me around," I finished my words exasperated. I didn't even know I had those fears. I buried my head in my hands, just wanting to be free of these thoughts and these feelings.

"You're being ridiculous. You just have to tell Maya," Zay spoke determined.

"Why?"

"Because if she does feel the same way, and if I know anything it's that she does, then all of this is going to be worth it. You're going to feel stupid for not telling her sooner and the feeling you have right now…it's all going to be worth it," he smiled. "So just tell her."

Telling Zay felt so good, to get everything off my chest, that telling Maya may even feel better. That fear was still pounding in my chest, the fear that she wouldn't feel the same way. The worst case scenario was that our friendship would be completely ruined; I didn't know if I would be able to take that. But maybe Zay's right, if it does work out, then it'll all be worth it because I will finally be able to be with Maya. I look over to see Farkle's shape walking back down the street towards me and Zay. If he could do all this for Riley, to put everything on the line and risk it all, then maybe I could too. Farkle said it himself, there was a 50/50 chance that she could feel the same way. Maya and I had those same odds.

Once Farkle got back to standing in front of Riley's apartment with us, we dropped the conversation. Farkle had enough on his plate at the current moment and he didn't need to add my problems on top of it; even though my problem was the exact same as his problem, which was kind of ironic. Maya came out of the apartment about 10 minutes later, Riley in tow.

"You said you wanted to talk to me Farkle?" Riley asked. She was unexpecting of the whole thing, the entire real reason we came out here to see her. Those of us who were in on it gave him an encouraging look, Zay even throwing in a wink. Once he nodded, he and Riley quickly disappeared into the house. I had the car keys shoved in my pocket and suggested we take a ride somewhere, assuming Riley and Farkle were going to take a while. We had a few hours to spare and we could see some of California while we waited.

"Can we go to the beach?" Maya asked enthusiastically. She didn't get too many opportunities to see the beach in New York. Zay and I were more than happy to oblige and take her to the beach. We weren't too far from Santa Monica and Zay wanted to see the pier so it worked out.

Zay being Zay, met a girl almost the second we stepped onto the boardwalk. He disappeared with her after a little while, but knowing him, I think it was at least partially so I could have alone time with Maya. Was now my time? Thinking I didn't have much time, I was working myself up to tell her while we walked around the pier and even rode a couple rides. But after getting a text from Farkle asking to pick him up from Riley's between 7 and 8, I knew I had more time. It also meant things were probably going at least somewhat well for Farkle, so I was happy about that. But it also gave me time to stall.

It was sunset when Maya and I finally stopped walking around and found a quite bench at the far end of the pier, away from the heavy crowd. It was weird, I was nervous to send time alone with Maya after the awkward air that surrounded us after last night's moment in the pool. But today, on the pier, was like nothing was different. Maybe she made peace with what happened. She hadn't brought it up though, like it didn't even happen. I didn't know if I should take it as a good thing or a bad thing. But I didn't want to use that to chicken out of telling her. This was a long time coming, not as long as Farkle and Riley, but long enough for me.

"I'm actually really glad we have this alone time because I want to tell you something," Maya suddenly interrupted my thoughts.

"Oh? What's that?" I asked, a bit uneasy about what she could want to discuss.

"It's about Josh. And why we broke up," she told me, her eyes looking straight at me. They showcased her vulnerability, but it was a look I had seen before.

"Maya you don't have to tell me about that if you-"

"I want to. You've been so sweet and nice and I always tell you everything. And I want to tell you this," she said with a sincere smile. To be honest, I was nervous to hear the truth about her and Josh. I could tell it was bad since that night it happened and she refused to tell me then. I nodded my head to tell her I was listening. She took a deep breath before continuing. "When me and Josh had sex it-"

"Woah woah woah!" I stopped her. "You and Josh were having sex?" Yeah, I kind of figured they were having sex. They had been dating for 3 years, they had known each other for forever; it kind of went with the territory I guess. But Maya and I never talked about it, she never even mentioned it directly. And hearing it out loud in this moment, I was suddenly reminded of why. Just thinking about that jerk on top of her, kissing her, and touching her with his hands, doing… that… with her, it was enough to make me want to punch a hole in a wall.

Maya nodded in response. She seemed reluctant in her movements, probably sensing my attitude about the whole thing. "Not for that long. It's been going on for less than a year," she promised.

"I didn't know you were ready for that kind of thing," I commented. Whether or not she would ever admit it, Maya was an emotional person. Everything she did had some kind of emotional reason behind it. Sex was one of those things that could have such an emotional consequence to it. From how I knew her relationship was with Josh, I figured she wouldn't be ready to pair it with sex.

"I don't think I was," she admitted. Her face dropped with sadness and remorse.

"Maya did Josh force you to have-"

"No! No I promise he didn't 'force me.' It's just-" she paused. "He asked me a while back. And I told him I wasn't ready. He said he was fine with it and that he would wait, but I could tell it bothered him. And after a while all I could think about was how that would just be another thing to make him believe I was too young for him to be with."

"Maya whether or not you will have sex with him should not be one of the factors that determines if he'll be with you or not!" I tried to keep my voice was seeming too loud or aggressive, but Josh was pissing me off. Figures he would be able to piss me even when I was on the other side of the country.

"I know Lucas! I know that now, but then… I just didn't want to lose him. And I figured that I could just do it and it wouldn't be that bad. He was my boyfriend. Boyfriends and girlfriends have sex all the time, it wasn't supposed to be a big deal."

"So you did it?" I asked, although I obviously knew the answer.

Maya just shrugged her shoulders and kept her gaze down at her hands. "The first time, it was weird. It didn't feel great, but it was like ok it's done and this is happening now. Then we kept doing it and I never felt right. I kept thinking that maybe the more we did it or the longer we were together then it would start to feel better. But it never felt right. So I told Josh I didn't want us to have sex anymore, not until I was really ready."

"Why didn't you come and talk to me about it?" I asked. Again, I kind of already knew the answer.

"I can't talk to you about this!" Maya laughed.

"Maya you tell me about Josh all the time."

"Not me and Josh having sex," she shot back. As much as I wanted to help her, it was a sore subject for a few different reasons. "Lucas your fists are so tight right now I feel like your hands are about to crumble to dust. My sex life with Josh is not exactly a subject for us to talk about on a regular basis."

"So I'm a little protective," I said, uncurling my fists. I was surprised I didn't feel my nails digging into the skin of my palms this whole time.

"Lucas!" Maya laughed. We both knew I was a little overprotective at times. Honestly I understood why she didn't come to me with her Josh problem when it had to do with sex.

"Please tell me Josh didn't break up with you because you didn't want to have sex with him?" I asked, getting us back on track.

Maya's eye sight went back down from my eyes to her hands again. "He said he was fine with it at first. But I could tell he hated it. So the other night when I came to your place, earlier that night I went to Josh's apartment."

"To do what?"

"I was just going to do it. I was just going to have sex with him because it's what he wanted," she almost whispered. I had to actively stop my fists from tightening.

"Is that when he broke up with you?" I asked carefully.

Maya nodded, then an angry smirk surprised me by coming to her face. "Before or after I walked into his room and caught him with a girl in his bed?"

"He cheated on you?!" I yelled. God he was so lucky I was on the other side of the country. Because if I could get to him right now, he would be dead. Maya nodded again. "Maya in what world do you get broken up with after you're the one that's cheated on?" Not only did I not understand how someone could cheat on a person as amazing as Maya, but I didn't get how Maya was the one broken up with.

"I've been asking myself that question for days," she commented.

"Why didn't you tell me this the other night?" Maybe it was a dumb question, considering I was currently planning on how to kill Josh for doing this to Maya.

"Lucas tell me the truth. If I had told you this the other night, would you honestly have been able to not go out and kill Josh?" Maya said with a small knowing smile. She knew me well. She could see the look on my face, which I'm sure was failing in trying to hide my fury at her ex-boyfriend.

"Ok so I probably would have pushed him in front of a moving car," I said, letting a laugh out. Maya laughed too but I could still see tears welling up in her eyes. "But Maya you shouldn't have to hold all of this in. That's not fair to you."

"I haven't even told Riley yet. She knows we broke up, but she thinks it was mutual," she revealed.

"What did he say?" I asked, still curious about why Josh would break up with her.

"He said it had been over long before I caught him with that girl. So that's it," she said, her tears finally falling over the rim of her eyes. I reached over and wiped one away, resting my hand on her cheek.

"Maya please don't cry," I begged. I'm sure she would if she could, but instead the tears kept coming. She wasn't sobbing or heaving with heavy breaths, but the tears kept falling. I got up from my spot on the bench and knelt down in front of her, placing my hands in hers. "Maya, Josh is a jerk! You don't even understand how much more you deserve. Trust me, this break-up is a good thing, alright?" Maya nodded, a smile creeping onto her lips. I pulled her up to her feet and placed my hands on her shoulders. The ocean breeze blew and made Maya's blonde hair sway into her face. My fingers pushed her hair behind her ears and a wiped more remaining tears out of her face.

Was this it? Was this my moment to tell her? I told her she deserved more but should I tell her that I could be that more? I opened my mouth to say it, to finally say the words to her, but instead heard Maya's voice.

"Thank you. You're the best Lucas. I know everyone always says Riley's my best friend, but I think she's more like my sister. You're my best friend. I don't know how I could get through any of this without you," she told me.

Her words hit me in a way I didn't expect. She valued our friendship so much, maybe more than I even did. I couldn't take that from her.

So instead of telling her how I felt I grabbed her and wrapped my arms around her small shoulders. She immediately gave in and buried her head in my chest, wrapping her arms around my torso and grasping the back of my shirt. My chin settled on the top of her head, she was always the perfect height for that. Some of her little blonde hairs tickled my neck in the breeze.

I couldn't say it. Not now. She was so vulnerable right now that I couldn't tell her. And I couldn't put her on the spot with the 'how do you feel about me' question that would have to come up after a confession as big as mine. I think even I knew that deep down, somewhere really deep down buried was the fact that I was still just too scared to come clean and confess. But an excuse was an excuse. Do I wish I told her? Absolutely. I wish I could look at her right now and explain to her how beautiful and smart and talented and kind I thought she was. Or tell her how she makes me laugh more than anyone else does. Or most importantly how I never believed Josh deserved her but that I have spent nearly every day of the past 3 years trying to be someone who did deserve her. My only wish in this moment would be that I could and would tell her that.

But I just couldn't…

 **A/N: Was it what you were expecting? Did you like it? I honestly don't like making the Josh a villain for the sake of a story plot, because I think he would actually be a good boyfriend to Maya, because come on he's a Matthews. But whatever I just needed him to be an asshole here lol**

 **Next chapter will be out soon! That chapter is also a biggie and I know for a fact you guys will enjoy it;) But there's only 2 more chapters in the story after this one!**

 **Review Review Review!**


	14. Truth

**A/N: SO TIRED. And I'm so sorry I haven't updated this sooner. But here it is! Super dramatic; super cliché lol This is the most cliché chapter I have ever written…so enjoy;)**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 14: "Truth"

As expected, Farkle's discussion went well with Riley, better than he expected. She was pretty clear in telling him she shared in his feelings, not that any of us were surprised. Farkle was surprised though. When Maya, Zay, and I arrived back at Riley's that night, at the time Farkle requested, the two love-birds were deep in conversation. We considered going back out, giving them more time to themselves. But they were happy to have us there and tell us the good news.

It's not like they could be together, not really. But they agreed they didn't really feel like they could be with anyone else now that they know the other feels the same way. So the two of them decided to try a long-distance for a while, then see each other on holidays back at home in New York. It would be hard no doubt, but honestly if anyone could do it, it would be those two. If the rest of us had any doubts about whether their long-distance would work, we kept them to ourselves. We were in full support of Riley and Farkle. It was more than nice to know that this whole trip meant something, and all of Farkle's courage was worth it in the end.

But Farkle wasn't ready to let this trip end. To be honest, neither were the rest of us. It would be a few months before all of us would be back in New York for the holidays and could be together like this again. So we decided to stay the night at Riley's, Farkle in Riley's bed and the rest of us huddled up on the fold-out couch in the living room. Before bed we kept it as close to old times as we could by ordering pizza and playing board games, then dazing off close to sleep while a movie played in the background. Yes, we would have to make up the lost time by taking turns driving so we could drive through the whole first night, maybe even the second night. But it was worth it to get to spend this night together. Nothing was awkward, nothing was forced. It was exactly like old times.

When the light from the next day came though, it was bleak. The sky had changed from the sunny, cloudless sky it was just the day before. Now it was grey and threatening rain at any second. As much as Farkle wanted to stay and have breakfast with Riley, she promised that once the rain started, the freeways would be backed up with traffic for hours. So it would be in our best interest to get going as soon as possible. It was like a horrible déjà vu saying goodbye to Riley again. Maya and Farkle practically didn't let her go when they each got their turn to hug her before we piled into the car and waved goodbye. As if the weather was reading the moment, the very moment we got onto the freeway, rain started pouring down. Traffic was halted a bit, but navigation gave up a good way around the busy city and going up into northern California, taking a more northern route home.

We were all engaging in a nice discussion about Riley and California, with the comforting sound of rain hitting the car in the background, when suddenly the car shook. Nervous eyes from each of us looked around the car. The road we were on had very few cars passing by and Zay, our driver, worked quickly to pull the car over to the side of the road.

"Um so you know what we forgot?" Zay said, faking a laugh.

"The mechanic," I moped, letting my head drop into my hands. With all the excitement of seeing Riley and being in California, we completely forgot to take the car into the mechanic like we meant to. The car stalled and came to an immediate stop once Zay pulled off the road. I was surprised to see some smoke coming out of the hood in the front.

"What do we do?" Maya's concerned voice asked. All of us looked around anxiously, looking for an answer.

"Let's just go take a look at it," Zay suggested. It's not like we knew how to fix it, but calling a tow-truck now would be death to our schedule, with us already a couple days behind. I was about to open my mouth to speak when Maya's phone dinged through the car. Reaching into her sweater pocket, she pulled it out and frowned at the caller ID.

"What?" she answered it. I knew who it was and I wasn't in the mood to listen to her talk to him. A look of frustration washed over my face. I reached for the door handle and pulled it, opening my door.

"Let's go fix the dumb car so we can go home," I grumbled, getting out into the rain.

I never thought hearing her talk about or talk to Josh would make me this angry. Yeah it was never choice to hear it, but I was always able to get over my own dislike of the guy. But he cheated on her! He cheated on the best girl I knew and she was still crying over him and putting up with him and it wasn't right. I didn't want to hear it. I was almost glad the car broke down so I had an opportunity to get out and avoid it. Zay and Farkle were quick to follow in my lead and joined me as I looked under the hood of the car. Zay, who could probably tell that I wasn't truly focused on what was under the car hood, took his place in the center of Farkle and I, his eyes glued to the engine as small smoke clouds flew up from it. I stood on the side which, unfortunately, gave me a good view of Maya sitting in the backseat of the car. Her phone was glued to her ear and her face was growing red with the screams that escaped her mouth. I couldn't make out her words, with the sound of cars and rain in my ear, but I could tell it was a screaming match back there. Despite her best efforts, hot tears fell out of her eyes and I couldn't stop watching her as she lifted her arm to wipe them away from her cheeks.

"Lucas?" Zay's voice broke through my thoughts. My head turned to see his gaze on me, a worried expression being worn on his face. "I'm sure she's fine." His words were trying to console me, but they wouldn't work. Josh cheated on her! I had so many things I could stand to yell at him right about now too, but she had already put so much energy into the jerk that wasting any more breath on him seemed pointless. It was getting to me more than I thought it would.

I tried with everything in me to focus on the engine with the two other boys. "I just want to focus on the car Zay," I told him, my eyes looking away from the small, upset blonde still in the car. Farkle, of course, was no help in figuring out the problem. Zay and I argued for a while about what to do. We tried little things, but after a while of trying to restart the car, it seemed worthless.

Maya's form suddenly stood next to me. The rain hit her face, concealing any trace of tear stains. Her red eyes gave her away though. I didn't bring it up, but instead dropped my head in anger to direct my attention back to the car.

"What's going on?" she asked, probably trying to distract herself as well.

"I could ask you the same thing," I grunted, keeping my head down. Not even I know if I meant for her head that. She did hear it and promptly threw a glare in my direction.

"What is that supposed to mean Lucas?" she demanded. Farkle and Zay took tiny steps back away from us, keeping themselves clear of the drama. My hands gripped the edge of the car. I tried to swallow down any dark feelings I had. Another fight was not what I wanted.

"Nothing."

"No, no Lucas it meant something. Please keep going," Maya insisted with hostility in her voice.

I turned to towards her to see her arms crossed over her chest. She was already so annoyed and irritated that responding the way I did was the exact way to start a fight, even if I didn't want to.

"Why are you still doing that?" I asked a bit vague. Maya stumbled back confused, pushing wet strands of hair out of her face.

"Doing what?"

"You know what! Put up with him and his crap!" I yelled. I couldn't hold it in anymore. I knew it wasn't healthy to hold it in. Just like it wasn't healthy for her to still give her time to Josh, not after what he did.

"It is none of your business what I do or who I talk to!" she barked back. She turned on her heels to make her way back to the car door. But I stopped her, slamming my fist down on top of the car. She jumped back to look me in the eye. Her blue eyes had a hint of rage that I'm sure mine shared.

"You made it my business Maya! You made it my business for the past 3 years coming to me over and over again! So yeah I have a right to care," I yelled. "And I'm so done hearing you complain about what an ass he is!"

Her eyes squinted in anger, or maybe to keep more rain drops from finding their way inside her pupils. Silence. I don't know what I expected her to say. But I expected something. But we just stood there in our stand-off. Finally her stance shifted, but her eyebrows worried me how they wrinkled in determination.

"Fine. Then I won't come to you anymore! You're off the hook," she said, stomping away.

"Maya! You know that's not what I meant!" I noticed her walk past the car door, past the car entirely. I left my spot and started following her and she made her way down the road. "Where the hell are you going!?"

"Lucas you don't want to hear me complain! So I need to be away from you right now!" she yelled, throwing her body around to let me see her hurt and demanding eyes.

I didn't know if she was twisting my words on purpose to get out of having an actual conversation; a conversation that might be too deep. Or if it was an accident, if the hurt inside of her was too much and contributed to making it impossible for her to process my words correctly.

"Maya I have listened to you complain for the past 3 years! When have I ever said I didn't want to hear it? Never!"

"You're saying it now!" Her voice was so hurt and strained. Her eyes hovered on mine but I had to release the strain on my stomach and reveal everything. If Farkle could do it I could too right?

"Because there's no excuse for what he did to you! God Maya do you know how frustrating it is to watch you be in love with this guy who never does anything except hurt you? Do you know how frustrating it is to watch you be in love with anybody?" Her eyes became confused and softer than they were just seconds ago. I couldn't see Zay's face behind me, but I'm sure he was smirking. "For 3 years I've had to watch you love him and cry over him and be with him. And for 3 years, I've had to watch him not deserve any of it! It's been 3 years of you crawling into my window and I didn't mind because I wanted to be that person that you could tell anything to! And I thought settling for being that guy would be enough as long as you were happy. But you're not happy with him Maya!" I couldn't stop. I wanted to stop and let her say something. Her wide-eyed gaze made it seem like she did have something to say but I couldn't stop the words from coming out. "And I would know, because I'm the one who watched you get treated like shit for 3 years and then took care of you! I've always been the one who took care of you, Maya! Me! Not him! I'm the one who's been in love with you for 3 years, not him!"

I didn't stop until I saw her start to take little steps in my direction. Her eyes, usually so bright and expressive, I could usually always tell what she was feeling. Right now I couldn't. She stopped dead in her tracks just a few feet in front of me. Her blonde hair, now soaking wet from the rain, stuck to her face, but she didn't bother to move the strands away.

"What did you just say?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"I've been in love with you since the day I met you," I confessed. As expected, I felt an instant relief settled in my chest. It was as if a forty ton weight was lifted up off of my shoulders and I could breathe. I didn't know how she would respond but it felt right to say, especially to her face. "And I'm not going to stand by and watch you get hurt anymore. Alright? I refuse to. I don't know what's going to happen but I have to do this," I said right before closing the distance between us. I walked up to her, cupped her wet face in my equally wet hands, and finished what I started the other night in the hotel pool.

Our lips connected and at first a thought surged through my head that she would pull away. But then I started to feel her kiss me back. Once she got past the stunned moment of me kissing her in the first place, she relaxed into it. I felt her body push closer into mine and her hands grab at my shirt, keeping me close. The whole world around us disappeared and we sunk into our own little space, a space where nothing existed except us.

I pulled away reluctantly, needing air. My forehead leaned onto hers, but my eyes remained closed. I didn't know what she would say but I wanted to stay in this moment for as long as I could. Her fingers started stroking my sides, making their way under shirt to touch my skin. I melted into her touch in a way I never let myself do before. Her hot breath came onto my chin as she inhaled and exhaled hard and fast, catching her own breath and gathering her own thoughts. My head was spinning. I never thought I would be able to do that. I wouldn't regret doing it, even if her next words were bad.

"I think I've wanted you to do that for the past 6 years," she breathed out.

Those were the best words I could have ever heard. My eyes opened and looked into hers. Seeing the smile on her face I knew I had made the right move. My lips curled into a big smile of its own, letting out a little laugh. Not being able to waste any more time not kissing that girl, I pulled her in again, connecting our lips.

"About time!" I heard Zay yell behind me. I couldn't agree more. My smile met her smile as we both smiled into the kiss, the kiss that should have happened long ago. Her arms wrapped around my torso tight and I tangled my hands in her wet hair.

Minutes seemed to fly by that my mouth didn't want to leave hers. We were forced to separate as we heard Zay call over to us.

"I hate to interrupt this moment for you two, trust me I've been waiting for it as long as you guys have," he started. Maya laughed as she held onto me with her head now leaning on my chest. "But this car is not going to start without a real mechanic to fix it."

"Well call a real mechanic," I said, thinking I was stating the obvious. I knew we were already so behind in the schedule and any mechanic would probably take at least a whole day to fix the car with the shape it was in. We had to get back in time for school, but I couldn't bring myself to really care. Finally after years of waiting, I had Maya in my arms. For real this time, not just as my best friend. I tightened my arms around her now, wanting to imprint this moment in my head so I could remember it always.

"We would do that," Zay started. "But we don't even have the keys." Both me and Maya gave him a disbelieving look.

"What do you mean we don't have the keys?" Maya asked.

"We kind of locked them in the car," Zay said, trailing off his words. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Maya unwrapped her arms from around me and I knew why. I wanted to try the doors for myself. Upon jiggling each of the four door handles, I saw they were all indeed locked.

Now not only was the car completely shot, not starting at all, but the keys were locked in the car. Great.

"What do we do?" Maya asked, taking my hand in hers. Not even the car situation could ruin this moment. Maya's tiny hand was freezing and I knew she was cold.

"We could call AAA. They can get the keys out and then tow us to a mechanic," Farkle suggested. We figured that was our best option. Luckily, Farkle kept the AAA card for the car in his wallet and not in the car with the rest of the insurance paperwork.

We didn't have much to do but wait now. The ground below us was muddy and wet from the rain, so settling for leaning my back against the car, I let Maya relax her body into me. My lips pressed to her forehead to kiss it and then my head propped up on her head. At the sound of a little snicker, I turned my head to see Zay smirking at me relentlessly.

"What?" I asked with a smirk of my own.

"Finally. That's all. Just… finally," he smiled, leaning his back against the car next to me.

"Tell me about it," Maya voice whispered just loudly enough for us to hear.

 **A/N: Only one more chapter to go! Was that enough of a rom-com cliché moment for you guys? How did you like it? Let me know in your reviews! Thanks for reading you guys. It means the world!**


	15. I'm In This

**A/N: Ok this is it! The last chapter! Enjoy you guys:D**

 **I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.**

Chapter 15: "I'm In This"

We were all freezing. It had been almost 30 minutes of waiting and the AAA guy still hadn't gotten to us. We were huddled close together on the side of the car. Luckily the rain had let up and was mostly just misting a bit now. I could feel Maya's body shivering lightly as she rested in my arms. My jacket hung off her shoulders and she pulled it tighter over herself. I had to almost force it on her because she was worried I would be too cold without it. And I was, I was freezing, my limbs feeling like they would fall off. It was nothing compared to the cold of New York City, we all agreed, but combined with the rain and soft wind, it was freezing. Plus it's not like we were exactly dressed for this weather.

Zay's voice kept ringing out over the sound of the other cars on the road next to us. "I knew it! I knew it the whole time!" he kept repeating. Maya smiled when he said it, not actually believing him. She wasn't the one who was bugged about it daily for years so I wasn't surprised she didn't believe his know-it-all words.

"Zay how would you have possibly known this?" Maya asked as she brought her cold body closer into mine. I was busy trying to keep my shivers concealed so Maya wouldn't try to give me my jacket back.

"Do you not know how you two look at each other?" Zay smirked. Maya's little embarrassed laughter rang through my ears and made me smile. I never thought it would be like this. She was just as blissfully unaware of how obvious her feelings were, to everyone except each other that is.

There were still so many questions I had to ask Maya. There were things I was desperately wondering about and things I wanted get straight. I knew this moment, standing out in the cold rain wasn't the time. A mental note in my head would remind me to ask her my questions later, have a full conversation. I didn't even know what to call her right now. Girlfriend seemed fast, considering all of our feelings came out less than an hour ago. But I wanted to believe we were past best friends now. Our kiss, well kisses, and our admitting of our feelings should have taken us forward into something more.

"He's here!" we heard Farkle yell out. I was buried in thought and Maya and Zay were in the middle of a conversation, the topic of which I'm not sure but based on their smiles I would bet it was about Maya and I. On a single beat, we all looked to the road to see the tow truck from AAA pull up to our car.

"Heard you kids needed some help," the driver smiled, getting out of his truck. Much to my joy, Maya didn't leave my arms even as he jiggled the car door open and retrieved the keys. "You kids hold on, I'm going to get the car hooked up and then I'll get you to a mechanic in town." He went to work getting the car onto the tow truck while the rest of us climbed into the truck. Farkle's fingers were reaching to turn the heater on extra high as Zay opened his mouth to speak.

"Can I make a suggestion?" We all nodded, ready to hear anything. At this point, not only were we cold, but we were exhausted and hungry and just wanted to be home. Maya was on my lap with the limited space in the tow truck and her head suddenly came into the crook of my neck, resting on my shoulder. "Look driving cross-country to see Riley and tell her everything was romantic and all. But I think we can all agree it doesn't matter much how we get home," he told us.

"Fly home?" I asked, very ok with that suggestion. Zay nodded in response and our heads all turned to Farkle. He was tired, too, I could tell. A smile came to his face and he pulled out his phone immediately.

"I'll look at flights. Hopefully one leaves today that has some seats on it," he smiled.

"What about the car?" Maya wondered.

"Honestly, my dad will probably just have towed across country back to our place," he laughed, tapping away on his phone to find a flight for us.

It wasn't long before the tow truck driver came back in and started driving to a mechanic in the next town over. On the road, Farkle alerted us that we had a red-eye flight booked for that night and we could be back in New York the next morning. Farkle's dad, although angry about the status of the car, was happy we were all safe after our little accident that caused the car problems. He made arrangements for the car to be sent back to New York and the rest of us, after changing into dry clothes, piled into a cab and left to the airport. It was a while before our plane started boarding but we figured it would be a good time to get something to eat at one of the restaurants at the airport. Farkle treated, as a thank you for coming with him on this trip. Not that we needed a thank you, this trip worked out pretty well for me, too.

We all had scattered seats on the plane, since we booked late and Farkle just had to take whatever seats were left. Maya and I luckily talked the guy next to me into switching seats with her so we could sit together. For the next 8 hours, her hand stayed clutched onto mine. Her head leaned on my shoulder, her voice right in my ear. We tried sleeping but it was a no go. I think I could have fallen asleep but Maya was adamant about how she wouldn't be able to sleep on the plane. Whenever we tried closing our eyes, she only stayed still and silent for no more than 10 minutes before popping her head up and insisting she wouldn't be able sleep. So I stayed awake with her. Our normal way of talking, the flowing conversation with little spurts of laughter coming from her mouth every so often, it was back. This was how we communicated and it felt good.

8 hours later, we landed in New York. I was yawning uncontrollably, not having slept in almost 24 hours. We all took our separate cabs back to our own homes. I didn't want Maya to leave my arms ever. Outside the airport, Zay and Farkle watched as I held Maya in my arms. I had her now and I didn't want to leave. When our eye contact was interrupted by a little yawn escaping her lips, I laughed and helped her into her cab. I ignored the playful teasing from Zay as we shared our cab ride home considering we lived only a couple blocks from each other. I was too much on cloud 9 to be annoyed.

Now, I laid in my bed. I already missed that little blonde head, with the long cascading hair that I could twirl in my fingers. I missed her little hands that made mine feel so warm. I missed the content feeling I got when I looked at her blue eyes. I missed everything about her, it was almost overwhelming. Never before had I missed her like this when she was gone. I could only guess it was because I never allowed myself to. She was never mine to miss like this, but I think now she was.

I was close to sleep when all of a sudden I heard a little tap on my window. I looked up to see Maya already half way through the window and into my room. Her hand went up, stopping me from getting up to help her through. When both of her feet touched the floor of my room, she tip-toed over to my bed, took off her shoes, and crawled in next to me.

"Shortstack what are you doing here?" I asked, not taking for granted the fact that I could wrap her in my arms now. I pulled her in tight as she pushed hair out of her face and settled in to be more comfortable.

"I just wanted to see you," she whispered. She turned her head to look up at me with a little smile. "And I think I sleep better when I'm with you." A coincidence, considering I think I sleep better when she's with me, too. I was ready to fall asleep to her breathing when she pulled away from my embrace. My eyes opened to see her sitting up, her face serious. "Also I kind of think we have stuff to talk about."

She was right, of course. Yes, we made our confessions, but we didn't know anything beyond that. I had questions about Josh, concerns actually. Where do we go from here? I sat up, taking one of her hands in mine and lacing my fingers through hers. We have had so many talks in this one spot that this should be easy. All we had to do was be honest with each other.

"What do you want to talk about?" I asked, willing to let her start.

"Us."

I laughed at her obvious statement. "I know that." She smiled too. I could tell she was a little worried about how this would go. But I wasn't planning on keeping this in anymore. I had gotten a tiny taste of what it was like to be with Maya, really be with her, and I would do whatever it took to keep being with her like that. "Can I ask you something?" Maya nodded quickly. "When did you start to have feelings for me?"

"You know the answer to that," she claimed. To me, it didn't make any sense. She had been with Josh for so long. She had told me once that she didn't have feelings for me anymore. So my question now was just when did they come back?

"Maya that doesn't make sense. If you've been with Josh this whole time you couldn't have had feelings for me." I was trying not to get emotional. If I got emotional, Maya would no doubt get emotional. But this was real to me, it was important. "Back years ago, on our ski lodge trip, you told me I should be with Riley."

"I told you to be with Riley, not that I didn't feel that way about you anymore," she was quick to answer back. "Lucas I wanted Riley to be happy and she wouldn't have been happy if I was with you. So I told you to be with her because I thought that would make both of you happy."

It wasn't surprising to hear. Maya had a habit of always putting Riley first, even if it meant Maya herself got put last. "And when me and Riley broke up?" I asked.

"By then I was already with Josh. And I didn't think you felt that way about me. So I thought if I couldn't be with you how I wanted to be with you, then I could at least have that connection with you. And we could be close like that," she confessed in a small voice. The expression on her face mixed with the tiny quality of her voice was proof that she was getting to an emotional place. With a little smile on my face, I laughed a little.

"You have liked me this whole time? And what you just pushed it down?" I asked.

"What was I supposed to do Lucas?" she asked. She seemed maybe a bit offended by my question so I squeezed some pressure onto her hand. Turns out we were both in the same boat for the past few years.

"I don't know. I don't know because I've been doing the same thing," I came clean. When a look of pure confusion made its way to Maya's face, I felt truly confused. "Maya you were with Josh! I wasn't going to put you in that position of having to choose between me and your actual boyfriend. That wouldn't have been fair to you."

"Why would you let me come to you and complain about Josh all the time if you felt that way?"

"According to Zay it's just because I'm Lucas Friar," I laughed.

Maya laughed in return. "Yeah that seems about right." I knew I should say something, but I was too wrapped up in her thumb as it made its way stroking the side of my hand. I stared at the sight, her skin touching mine like it never had before now. "So what happens now?"

"What's happening now with Josh?" I asked. It was a big question, one that caught Maya off guard. But I couldn't get it out of my head. This was a guy she had been with for so long and wanted to be with long before that. Even now, she was still talking to him and about him. Deep inside I was afraid I couldn't compete.

"Don't worry about Josh," she promised.

"I am worried about Josh! You still have some connection to your relationship. Enough of a connection that you're still talking to him," I complained. No secrets. I wanted this all out now.

"I don't need him if I have you!" Maya shot back. I could see the truth in her eyes and I trusted her words. "But I need to know that this is real for you. I mean we spend a lot of time together Lucas and it would be easy to think you have these feelings for someone-"

Her speech was stopped as my lips forcibly pressed against hers. I didn't want to hear her chalk my feelings up to a mistake. I know how I felt for her. When the kiss stopped I kept my gaze on her. "Maya you don't know how strongly I feel about you. I've felt this way for as long as I can remember and it's not going to change. I'm in this," I assured her.

It was only a moment before her grin grew from ear to ear on her face. Her body moved into my lap and her arms flew around my neck, locking her hands behind me. "I think I might love you," she said in a voice that proved nervous by the confession. We were barely dating, but maybe it's ok to say those words to someone if you've been through so much with them. We had seen each other at our worst but we stood by each other always. So much of the past few years of my life was Maya, moments with her. So I kissed her forehead and said the words back.

"I know I love you," I said.

After another kiss that I didn't really want to end, I saw her eyes really fight the urge to close.

"I'm exhausted," she spoke. I just nodded, letting out a little laugh. We positioned ourselves into bed, laying Maya's head down on my chest. Never before had I felt such a warmth or comfort. Who knew this tiny girl could make me feel this way.

I had no intention of ever letting her go again and I wrapped my limbs around her tight to show her that.

 **A/N: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU who read this story and commented on all the chapters and just gave me feedback! I loved how this story came out and I'm really excited that you guys liked it!**

 **My new story will be posted soon! It's a story that's my take on an asshole!Friar plot line. It turned out to be one of my favorite stories that I've ever written. So I'm stoked for you guys to read it! And I've gotten some good ideas for one-shots for that story I have up. If you don't already follow my one-shot compilation "Maya and Lucas, Lucas and Maya" then give it a follow!**

 **Thank you again! Can't wait to see you all in the next story!**

 **Also shout out to the guest who kept messaging me asking for a shout out lol**


	16. Quick Update

Hi guys! This story is over but I just wanted to let all of you know my new story has just been posted! It's the asshole!Friar story I keep talking about lol It's called "Don't Get Me Wrong" and I would really really love it if you guys would give it a read!

Thanks! And again thanks for everyone's continuous support on this story while it was going on:)


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